Viewer Interpretation

It would be good to discuss works done by Kerstin Dembling (2015). She focused her studies on photos of Nazi Germany, however, one quote in particular stands out, where she states, “…However, rather than provide a narrative text and context with each photo that might, for example, delineate the precise circumstances and motivations of arrests or killings, the curators let the individual images speak for themselves.” What she is saying here is that when photographers allow images to ‘speak for themselves” or basically be interpreted however the viewer desires, it alters or skews the memories associated with these images. To emphasize this, I would like to point out the two photos below.

Now, there are various things we could discuss involving these photos. While we will discuss the idea of editing in another post, the focus here will be on the interpretation of the photo. For example, let’s assume that the viewer can only see the photo on the bottom. One might interpret this photo in a variety of different ways. Obviously, it is an advertisement for Coca-Cola, however, where the discrepancy comes up would be timing of the photo. For example, maybe some people would just assume it’s older, due to it being in black and white, and the fact that it features an older looking Coca-Cola bottle. Now, let’s assume they only have the photo on the top. One might interpret that photo as being newer, because of it being in colour, although they might assume the advertisement itself is likely older, due to the bottle looking older. On the other hand, some might not think the ad itself is older, due to the fact that they still sell Coke in bottles even today, and maybe this advertisement was simply a remake of an older one, to appeal to a newer audience. As displayed, these photos could be interpreted in different ways, even though after closer inspection, you can see that they are the same photo – one is simply zoomed in more and has been filtered into black and white.