Photographic Experience Research Articles

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF PHOTOGRAPHY ON WOMEN'S SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-IMAGE: WHEN ART MEETS PSYCHOLOGY

This study analyzes the impact of artistic representation in pregnancy photography on women's self-esteem and self-perception during significant physical and emotional changes. Grounded in Cooley's "Looking-Glass Self" theory and Fredrickson and Roberts's objectification theory, the research examines how external evaluations and cultural norms shape self-perception. Utilizing a qualitative approach, the study explores the dual role of social media as a platform that both supports and challenges women's body image through social comparison and idealized standards. The findings highlight that artistic elements in photography, such as specific lighting techniques and personalized posing, positively influence self-esteem by emphasizing individuality and beauty. Ethical considerations in photo retouching are addressed, advocating for a personalized approach that balances technical possibilities with psychological needs. The novelty of this work lies in its interdisciplinary perspective, combining psychological theories with artistic practices to offer insights for professionals aiming to enhance psychological well-being among pregnant women through supportive photographic experiences.

Entre autorretrato e selfie: um estudo da performance em fotografias de si

This study analyses self-portraits and selfies to understand the space-time issues in Mauricio Lissovsky’s thought, which involve constructing self-images. By the lens of performance, it seeks to comprehend the historicity of self-portraits up to the phenomenon of selfies and to point out several ways in which bodies compose accounts of oneself, with their own intentions and meanings that shapin various modes of perceiving space and time in photographic experiences. Despite showing the matrices of the genre, selfies bring specificities in their performance: gestures as establishing the photographic space-time.

MOTHER’S GAZE: FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY AS A WAY TO RE-CLAIM SUBJECTIVITY

I am a mother, photographer and photography researcher. In this article I reflect on the practice of photographing my family with a goal of drawing attention to the role of family photography in re-claiming mother’s agency as subject. By implementing autoethnographic research strategy I analyse photographs and texts shared on my motherhood blog in 2016–2020. An intensive identity transformation takes place upon becoming a mother, which moves the woman’s confidence in herself as a subject with agency. My experience of motherhood was complicated and ambivalent. Yet, whilst photographing my family I create an image of a warm and cosy life. The discrepancy between images and inner experience prompts writing and thereby expanding the meaning of representations through written narrative. By looking for other means to regain subjectivity I review the elements of my photographic experience: the act of photographing, the review of photographs, archiving, sharing on social network in combination with writing. I state that photography allows me to activate my gaze at others and the gaze of others at me, which provides quite a significant sensation of power. The article offers a different perspective on the genre of vernacular family snapshots stressing the therapeutic potential of photography practice.

Dolors project: art-based polyethnography evoking contemporary rural mothering through photography, dance and chapbooks

This collaborative ethnography details the Dolors project, a transdisciplinary exploration that evokes rural mothering in Copons, Catalonia, through an immersive photographic process. The project culminated in an exhibition at an international festival, presenting a medley of family portraits, field notes, personal narratives and scenic elements. Central to the exhibition were eight chosen portraits of local mothers, paying tribute to Dolors Farrés, a revered ‘meta-mother’ figure in the community, whose wider social and metaphorical significance was progressively uncovered by the four co-authors. The exhibition's opening day featured an interpretive dance, transforming the photographic experience into a multimodal exploration. Post-exhibition, the visitor responses collected in chapbooks were transformed into a large-format photography book, and served as qualitative data for this study. Our creative, multi-voiced and evocative approach to ethnography seeks to shed light on a rich array of individual and collective perspectives around mothering within a rural setting.

Motivation and Compassion Satisfaction of Volunteer Bereavement Photographers: A Mixed Methods Study

Research into the use of bereavement photography is limited and the experiences of volunteer photographers remains understudied. For families with perinatal loss, bereavement photography allows for lasting mementos of a child and facilitates the maintenance of continuing bonds. This study investigated bereavement photographers’ reasons for volunteering, factors predicting their compassion satisfaction, and the support and retention of volunteer photographers. Utilizing a mixed methods design, 141 Australian and New Zealand volunteer bereavement photographers completed the Volunteer Motivation Inventory. The strongest motivators for volunteering related to Values, Reciprocity and Recognition. The results concur with other research showing altruistic motivation has the greatest influence on becoming a volunteer in end of life services. Moderate to high levels of Compassion Satisfaction were found on the Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5. Support from the volunteering organization and a higher number of photography sessions with families predicted higher Compassion Satisfaction. Additionally, 31 photographers participated in semi-structured interviews. Motivators for volunteering identified by the thematic analysis were: Giving Back, Being Appreciated, Healing Past Grief, and Satisfaction with the Organization. Overall, the findings suggested that providing sensitive supportive care, experiencing positive interactions with families, feeling supported, and having a sense of purpose led to higher levels of CS.

Makna Diri dan Branding Fotografer

The development of photography in the city of Bandung is closely related to the development of photography in Indonesia. Bandung is one of the big cities in Indonesia with a very rapid development of photography, especially with the emergence of various photographers with specialization in their fields. With the presence of many photographers who have started to appear in the city of Bandung, many photographers are still looking for the meaning of their photography activities and the branding that must be done so that the public becomes aware and uses their services. From this phenomenon, the research "Self Meaning and Photographer Branding" was created. This study uses a qualitative research method with a phenomenological study approach from Alfred Schutz. The purpose of this study is to find out, describe and analyze the motives of photographers in the city of Bandung in carrying out photography activities, to analyze and identify the experiences of photographers in the city of Bandung in carrying out photography activities, to find and describe the self-meanings of photographers in the city. Bandung in photography activities and to identify and describe the branding of photographers in the city of Bandung to attract consumer interest. This research uses social action theory from Max Webber. This research produces the because motive and in order to motive owned by the photographers, there are eleven motives owned by the photographers, namely, hobbies, love, environment, campaigns, earning a living, role models, visualization of imagination, remembering stories, appreciation, improvement confidence and dreams. The experience gained by photographers in the city of Bandung in carrying out photography activities is divided into three aspects, namely, obstacles, satisfaction and achievements. The meaning obtained by photographers in the city of Bandung in photographic activities is divided into three aspects, namely, the purpose, sensation and character of the photo. Branding carried out by photographers in the city of Bandung is obtained through three strategies namely, through social media, word of mouth and through the community.

Patricio Guzmán Campos, fotógrafo: el cuerpo a cuerpo con la arquitectura. Fotografías de la obra de Suárez, Bermejo y Borchers

In the context of a publication of the Spanish magazine Hogar y Arquitectura on architecture in Chile, the photographer Patricio Guzmán Campos was hired to produce the images of the works of Borchers, Bermejo and Suárez. Guzmán’s work is approached as a melee with the buildings, in a task of corporeal intermediation, suggested by one of Borchers’ texts. The general context of the publication is addressed; then, meeting points are established between the seismic aspect of Chile, photography and architecture as precedents to situate the production of architects and, closing the introductory part, associating the brutalist syntax with the visual approaches to the architecture of the sixties. In the central part, 18 photographs of the headquarters of the Chillán Electric Cooperative and the Meneses house are examined, in a reading guided by the photographic experience of the author, the drawings and plans of the works and the written correspondence between the architects. It concludes with a reflection on the narrative construction of the photographs, necessary to establish the photographic intermediation between the texts, the drawings and the plans that inform the works of architecture.

Does Camera Type Affect Patient Comfort? An Analysis of Patient Opinions of Office Photography

Purpose: Photography is an essential part to plastic surgery in terms of procedural planning and documentation. With the increasing quality of commercially available digital cameras, an investigation of the effect of camera type on patient perception of the office visit is necessary. Therefore, we aim to investigate the impact of using a traditional DSLR style camera versus a smartphone in office-based patient photography. Method: A Likert scale survey was completed by patients following office visits to assess comfort with office photography. Key points included: sex, age, number of previous visits, comfort with photographic experience, and camera type used. Results: 100 patients (78 F, 21 M) were included; 47 had photographs taken with a DSLR camera and 52 had photos taken with a smartphone. The mean decade of cohort age was 40 to 49 years old. No statistical difference in patient comfort between DSLR camera and smartphone use was observed (4.71 ± 0.72 vs 4.64 ± 0.57, P: .58). When data was stratified by sex or number of previous visits, there was still no difference in comfort across camera types. There was no significant main effect of age on comfort level ( P = .109); However, a post-hoc Tukey’s analysis showed significant comfort differences between the <18 and 18-29 subgroups and the <18 and 60 to 69 subgroups ( P = .040 and P = .041 respectively). Conclusion: Patients were overall equally comfortable with their photographic experience when providers used either camera. Smartphone cameras, therefore, should be regarded as a suitable alternative for office use without fear of invoking negative perceptions in patients.

The particularity of photographic experience

AbstractA common view in the philosophy of perception holds that states of seeing objects face to face have particular contents. When you see, say, a dog face to face, your visual state represents the particular dog that is in front of you. In this paper, I argue for a related claim about states of seeing objects in conventional photographs. When you see a dog in a photograph, for example, your visual state represents the particular dog that was in front of the camera when the photograph was taken, that is, the photograph's depictum. The argument in this paper proceeds in two steps. In the first step, I discuss states of seeing objects face to face. I argue that such a state represents the particular object whose surface is responsible for the optical information that the visual system uses to construct the state's attributive representational content. In the second step, I apply the result of this discussion to states of seeing objects in photographs. I argue that a state of seeing an object in a photograph has a particular content that represents the object that was in front of the camera when the photograph was taken.

Art, affect, and art effects

Camilo Leon-Quijano’s “phenomenology of photographic experiences,” centers on the proud, strong young women of the Chantereine rugby team in Sarcelles, reflecting a remarkable process of collaborative visual ethnography and aesthetic brokerage. Sarcelles becomes “an icon in an urban mythology,” visually conveyed in Figures 2 and 3 in his article, with blurry impressions of an urban landscape, the former image conveying a sense of being under construction—or unfinished—through cranes in the foreground of housing projects. In this poor banlieue on the edge of Paris, inhabited by a large population of immigrants of color, the Chantereine high school girls’ rugby team trains, competes, and bonds. Leon-Quijano’s photographs memorialize in a caring, intimate way the young women on this team, and the racial and gender barriers they challenge for the love of this sport. The different formats in which these images circulate, from reproductions printed on gift rugby balls, to small cards exchanged with messages among the players, from slide shows to gigantic portraits on the school’s external walls, are the result of dialogic exchanges between photographer and players, between the ethnographer and his interlocutors. The article also presents an erudite critique of the indexical use of photography as a tool in support of ethnographic data-gathering, in favor of using this medium as “poietic practice.”

The performative photograph

By reexamining the empirical relationship between ethnography and photography, this article explores the phenomenology of photographic experiences in a French banlieue. Photography may be a powerful practice to critically depict social phenomena in the field. Taking into account the basic assumption that photography is more than visual evidence of observed realities, I analyze the creative and nonindexical dimensions of visual experiences. Based on collaborative, sensorial, and pragmatic practices, I discuss the politics of visual representation in marginalized and racialized urban spaces from an intersectional point of view. The analysis developed here contributes to the definition of a creative and critically self-reflexive approach to the depiction of ethnographic experiences. In doing so, this article explores the plastic, poietic, and performative dimensions of photographic narratives in visual ethnography.Figure 1. (Author, 2017)View Large ImageDownload PowerPoint

The Latin American Colloquia and the Institutionalisation of Brazilian Photography

This article describes the institutionalisation of Brazilian photography in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of the other events relating to photography in Latin American countries. This process has close links with the first two Latin American Colloquia of Photography held in Mexico City in 1978 and 1981. These Colloquia promoted the creation of connections between Brazilian photographers and photographic institutions and those in Spanish-speaking Latin America. They also made it possible to bring European and North American institutional photographic experiences to Latin America, and helped to disseminate a version of Latin American photography in Europe, one that was based on a socially engaged documentary, the genre which was showcased and foregrounded at the Colloquia.

Photographic experiences and education in “My world yours”

Photographic experiences and education in “My world yours”

Transcending the colonial gaze: Empathy, agency and community in the South Pacific photography of John Watt Beattie1

For three months in 1906, John Watt Beattie, the noted Australian photographer – at the invitation of the Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, Cecil Wilson – travelling on the church vessel the Southern Cross, photographed people and sites associated with the Melanesian Mission on Norfolk Island and present-day Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. Beattie reproduced many of the 1500-plus photographs from that trip, which he sold in various formats from his photographic studio in Hobart, Tasmania. The photographs constitute a priceless collection of Pacific images that began to be used very quickly in a variety of publications, with or without attribution. I shall examine some of these photographs in the context of the ethos of the Melanesian Mission, British colonialism in the Solomon Islands, and Beattie’s previous photographic experience. I shall argue that Beattie first exhibited a colonial gaze of objectifying his dehumanized exotic subjects (e.g. as ‘savages’ and ‘cannibals’) but with increased familiarity with them, became empathetic and admiring. In this change of attitude, I argue that he effectively transcended his colonial gaze to produce photographs of great empathy, beauty and longevity. At the same time, he became more critical of the colonial enterprise in the Pacific, whether government, commercial or church.

As possibilidades do olhar estético do afeto: o projeto olhar complexo

O olhar estético do afeto foi desenvolvido durante o curso de doutorado em Direito pela Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (PPGD UFRJ), buscando oferecer uma alternativa no enfrentamento da violência no Rio de Janeiro a partir da hipótese que esta violência é a projeção de uma dinâmica circular de comunicação, sendo possível alterá-la através da estética. É a possibilidade de transformar o ver em olhar a partir da experiência perceptiva em uma cidade cuja projeção de imagens rotuladas instauram um fluxo permanente de manifestações de violência entre dois territórios, entre morro e asfalto. Uma técnica que pretende não só fazer visível as formas dessa violência, mas transformar a percepção sobre aquilo que é comunicado como violência. É o afeto que faz possível desfocar-me para focar no outro através do olhar do outro, tal como Maurice Merleau-Ponty apontou em sua Fenomenologia da Percepção, adotada como metodologia de pesquisa. A Fotografia pode ser o medium desta técnica que “faz ver” e “faz agir sobre”, tendo o afeto como lente. A partir da pesquisa empírica junto ao Projeto Olhar Complexo, criado e dirigido pelo Fotógrafo Bruno Itan, sediado no Complexo do Alemão, o curso de Fotografia materializou-se como possibilidade de um olhar estético do afeto, um meio para reterreritorializar a cidade através do afeto e construir outro real, outra imagem.

Automated quality classification of colour fundus images based on a modified residual dense block network

Fundus image-assisted diagnosis has become an intuitive and standard diagnostic technique in recent years. In hospital treatment and telemedicine, experts conduct pathological analysis and treat patients with fundus diseases using retinal images that are captured by fundus cameras. The quality of fundus images is therefore crucial for doctors to provide timely and accurate diagnoses of the diseases. However, the different experiences of fundus photographers result in different image qualities, and some images are marked as unreadable by the diagnostician, seriously delaying the treatment of patients. To solve the quality classification problem, a modified residual dense block convolution neural network (MRDB-CNN) is proposed in this paper. The two categories of images, “good quality” and “poor quality”, are used as the training data set and testing data set to train the CNNs and verify the classification results. The experimental results show that, compared with other existing network structures, the network proposed in this paper can classify the “good-quality” and “poor-quality” fundus images more accurately with an accuracy rate of 99.90%. In addition, the tests for the “ambiguous-quality” category further demonstrate that our method can obtain more detailed features of the fundus images and give an objective score to the image quality. In short, the MRDB-CNN can accurately classify the quality of fundus images while avoiding the complex preprocessing of traditional algorithms, and it satisfies the needs of hospital treatment and telemedicine for the real-time quality judgement of fundus images.

The Kodak Ensemble: Fashion, Images and Materiality in 1920s America

Walter Dorwin Teague’s design for the casing of the 1928 Kodak Ensemble brought together the latest camera technology with contemporary fashion. Shaped like a clutch bag, when opened the case contained not just a camera, but also a compact, lipstick, and mirror. Available in different colors and marketed to women, it represented connections between looking, seeing, being, and wearing, which expose shifts in 1920s modernity and femininity. This article analyzes the Kodak Ensemble, as a starting point for examining interrelationships between women, fashion, and photography, and between optic and haptic, and visual and material experience of dress, cameras, and photographs during a key period in the development of amateur photography and ready-made fashion.

Video Enhancement Utilizing Old and Low Contrast

It has been relied upon and is still found in the fields of scientific research, especially astronomy, medicine (for accurate disease diagnosis), biology, archeology, and industry on video and still images. The low accuracy and quality of some videos are often due to a poor lens type or angle, which may be due to a lack of photographic experience, or because of the older sections, which can be affected by the coolness of the surrounding perimeter. This research was completed using simple methods of processing based on using a program to convert video to individual images, then a number of image processing operations to improve quality, and finally re-assemble the images to the video more accurately than the original and in our own way. The proposed process consists of several steps: cutting the video clip into a set of images, performing various operations, such as using the contrast filter first, discovering the edges, smoothing the image, and improving image density prior to assembly. We finally assemble the images back into clips. This has been the process we used on many of the films affected by noise, or damaged for a long time, and has proven our ability to improve the quality of the video.

Views from a pinhole: experiments in wild pedagogy on the Franklin River

This work, comprised of pinhole photographs paired with written text, represents a series of ontological experiments with participants on a rafting expedition, on the Franklin River, lutruwita (Tasmania). Through photographic experiences in this landscape these experiments interrogated ideas about ways to represent places and ideas. We began with informal riverside workshops on pinhole photography followed by making pictures and developing them during the river journey. The home-made pinhole camera used by participants in the making of these photographs had neither a lens nor a viewfinder, thus the making of photographs demanded a certain sensual presence. The written expression of this work is partly comprised of reflections on the experiences of participants, some of whom engaged directly in this making. Participants were asked to consider what drew their attention to particular photographic images, and what feelings, emotions, experiences, memories or thoughts these chosen images evoked. These reflections are conjoined with musings on wild, self-willed and educational opportunities therein. The way in which this work is deliberately presented is reminiscent of a lyric philosophy (Zwicky 1992, 2003) that seeks to engage the reader, in this case through visual and linguistic representations, with patterned resonance.

Comparison of user satisfaction and image quality of fixed and mobile camera systems for 3-dimensional image capture of edentulous patients: A pilot clinical study

Statement of problemAn evaluation of user satisfaction and image quality of a novel handheld purpose-built mobile camera system for 3-dimensional (3D) facial acquisition is lacking. PurposeThe purpose of this pilot clinical study was to assess and compare the effectiveness between a handheld mobile camera system designed for facial acquisition and a fixed static camera arrangement by comparing the time effectiveness and the operator and participant preference for the 2 techniques of image capture. Material and methodsCompletely edentulous participants (n=12: women=7, men=5; mean age: 74.6 years) were included in this pilot study. Images were captured with and without the prostheses in situ while maintaining “serious” and “full-smile” facial expressions. Images were captured using a mobile and a static system. The working times for the participant installation and image captures were recorded. Operator and participant perceptions of the entire experience were recorded by using visual analog scale questionnaires. Nonparametric tests were used for statistical analyses (α=.05). ResultsThe installation time was significantly shorter for the mobile system (static=24 ±13 seconds; mobile=10 ±10 seconds), but the differences in the image capture times were not statistically significant (static: 29 ±5 seconds; mobile: 40 ±18 seconds). Operator preference was in favor of the mobile system with regard to working time (P=.002), difficulty in using (installation: P=.002; handling: P=.045), and camera weight (P=.002); however, they preferred the static arrangement for image quality (P=.003) and comfort (P=.013). The participants rated the entire photographic experience favorably, and 10 of 12 participants preferred the static camera over the mobile one. ConclusionsDespite the complexity of the installation, the static system was evaluated better for image quality; the mobile system was easier in installation and handling. The operators preferred the mobile system, and the participants preferred the static system.