Reviews
and Articles on Photography
by Michael McClellan
"Snapshots: Not as Simple as it
Sounds"
Business Monthly (Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt),
September 1990, pp. 35-36
Photography has often been called the
"universal language." Because it relies on images and not words, it is assumed
that everyone – regardless of his or her cultural background – will be able to
receive a common message through the universal language of the visual image. Yet, is this
true? If it is, does that mean that photography education will be the same for everyone in
every culture? This is a question now being confronted here in Egypt.
In the United States and most other Western countries, the teaching of photography builds
on a common visual and artistic tradition which assumes a certain level of visual
"literacy" in the students. For example, in all Western countries, children grow
up on a steady diet of pictures, videos, etc., which depict people of all types and ages
in many activities, candid and posed. Whether the images come to the student through
newspapers, magazines or television, he grows accustomed to seeing people depicted in
frozen moments, in a rectangular frame, with a conscious relationship between the subject
and its surroundings.
This activity of depicting the human form in a deliberate manner has a tradition in the
West that goes back thousands of years. Whether the medium was a cave painting, a Greek
statue, a Renaissance painting, or a photograph on the cover of Time magazine, the culture
developed with an acceptance and even glorification of the human image. For the youth of
today, the basics of visual literacy are already laid well before the child enters school.
To teach Western students photography, then, requires simply to continue building on the
traditions that are already in place, to develop the language that has already begun to
grow.
In Egypt as well as the Arab and Islamic Worlds, the situation is very different. Most
students do not grow up in the same visual milieu as do Western students. Their cultures
do not have a steady tradition of depicting people in everyday life as is found in the
West. The one notable exception to this rule is found in the Christian communities of the
Arab World, a group with a very old, visual tradition of depicting people on
two-dimensional, rectangular surfaces. This iconographic tradition, common to all
Christian communities in the Middle East was a natural precursor to photography. This may
explain, in large part, why most photographers in the Middle East in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries were Christians.
However, Egypt does have a very strong visual tradition from the pre-Christian era.
Pharaonical art is superb in depicting the human form in two or three dimensions and those
artists were very careful to record the scenes of daily life in their work. In fact, one
can argue that many of those unknown artists whose works now fill the Egyptian Museum
might well have been photographers had the technology been available to them.
The approach of those artists was to record "candid" moments of ordinary people
doing ordinary things emphasizing the beauty of their movements, expressions, and body
language. The implication was clear – the "language of photography" existed
in Egypt long before the technology of photography was developed.
In the Muslim tradition, however, the human face and form are not depicted in art (with
the exception of Persian Shiism). Instead, Koranic texts and geometric designs are used to
form unified, harmonious statements that rely on balance and repetition to depict unity
and oneness in a graphic manner. This tradition lends itself very well to abstraction, an
art form that flourishes in the Middle East. In photography, too, it lends itself to the
static image (e.g., architecture, landscape, form, abstraction, etc.), but not so much to
the human one. Thus, to teach photography in this cultural milieu requires that students
first be fed a very heavy diet of photographs of people – thousands of them – to
develop their understanding and appreciation of the human image. Then, the teacher can
begin to build true photographic awareness and understanding.
Likewise, the diet of images that is available in the Arab media is of a different style
from that found in Western photojournalism. In today’s Arab press, photos of
individuals and small groups of people are usually in formal portrait settings or at
controlled media events. For example, "firing squad" photos of several people
lined up at a party or a photo of a government official greeting another dignitary, are
very common. Very few indigenous examples of spontaneous action or of subjects in
uncontrolled situations are to be found in the pages of Arabic-language magazines and
newspapers. While this trend is based on the prevailing philosophy of the press, it does
not help young people to develop a high level of visual literacy. Variety is lacking and
there is not enough opportunity for the working photographer to stretch the bounds of
visual expression. A photographer does not have enough opportunity to explore the full
capabilities of the medium for transmitting and explaining information in a visual manner.
Overcoming this deficiency is the first and biggest challenge for the photography teacher
in the Arab World. Every day, in every class, students must see numerous examples of
quality images – in addition to bad ones – just so they can begin to distinguish
between the two and learn how to conceptualize and express their feelings and reactions
toward the photographic image. They must also be introduced to a wide ranges of
photographers and photographic styles so they can begin to develop "taste" in
photography, that is, the ability to distinguish between styles, periods, and nuances of
photographic expression. They need to learn who the major figures in world photography are
and to understand how photography developed in different cultures. It is only through such
a heavy, initial dose of images that they can come to understand that photography is much
more than a technical issue, that there is far more to photography than just the technical
process of exposure and development.
Communication is the essence of serious photography, and in any photojournalism course
considerable attention must be devoted to this issue. The good photographer, whether he
works for a publication, records the landscape, or makes portraits, must have a message of
some kind to communicate to the viewer of the image. The message may be simple or complex,
but it must be conceptualized if the result is to be successful.
For this reason there is an analogy between photography and journalism that is often used
to introduce students to the communicative function of the visual image. A good
journalist, much like a good photographer, learns how to formulate a message, express it
clearly and concisely, simplify it further, and then communicate it to a wider audience.
The process of communication, after all, is the same whether the medium is the printed
work, the photograph, the broadcast program, or even the spoken word in a speech. When a
message is transmitted from the sender to a mass audience the process is essentially
similar, only the tools change.
Journalism in Egypt and the Arab World faces a very exciting and challenging future. The
advent of CNN news, Arab News, and the continual introduction of new magazines and
newspapers in the region, has led to new challenges and responsibilities for the press as
well as for journalists of all specialties. For the visual journalist, these new areas are
especially vibrant and exciting whether he works in television, photography, or graphic
design.
Yet, for the photographer those challenges and responsibilities are particularly relevant
in the 1990s. Photojournalism and advertising photography are developing daily in new and
exciting ways. The technology of photography is also changing rapidly with computer
imaging, video discs, the transmission of still images from the camera to the receiver,
and so on.
The Arab photographer must prepare for these challenges and be ready to respond to them.
But for those responses to fit the unique cultural milieu of the Arab World, these men and
women must first adapt their professional goals and standards to the prevailing norms of
the rest of the world. By becoming more "professional," Arab photojournalists
and commercial photographers have many unique opportunities ahead. They must develop a
style and an approach to photographic communications that will best serve the needs of
their communities in new and exciting culturally appropriate ways. Before this can happen,
though, the long process of training a new generation of Arab photographers must begin.
These men and women should be well-grounded in their own cultural and artistic traditions,
but unafraid to borrow and learn from the long experience and achievements of
photographers in other countries. Steps have already been taken in this direction and
progress is being made.
Without question, an exciting period of development lies ahead.
© Michael McClellan, 2002
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