‘Psychology and Photographic Theory’,
by Órla Cronin (1998: 69-83), provides a critical review of the meanings and
psychological significance of family photographs. There are six assumptions challenged within
the chapter, however, this essay will focus on the fifth; the meaning of a
photograph arises in a narrative context.
The chapter begins by emphasising the lack of theorizing and research to
match the massive increase in ‘lay’ photography. The lack of any firm definitive theory has resulted
in a variety of practices based on the common assumptions examined in this
chapter, under the banner of phototherapy.
The assumption that photographs are either informative or provoke an
emotional reaction is linked to the work of Barthes. He suggests that either a photograph
contained a ‘studium’ (informational) or it contained a ‘punctum’ (emotional) (1980
cited in Cronin, 1998: 71), but Cronin’s objection to this method is its
polarizing of the two elements. In other
words, Cronin objects to Barthes’ ignoring the effect of culture on the
individual’s emotional reaction.
Another dichotomy that Cronin examines
is the assumption that photography is perceived by the ‘lay person’ as either
realist or symbolic. Her research (1996,
cited in Cronin, 1998: 75) demonstrated that individuals drifted between the
two perceptions depending on the topic discussed, highlighting the issue as
more complex. Moments of time
significant to the family commonly presented require caution in their
interpretation for the individual, as the significance may be entirely
different and non-representative. Cronin
also advises caution in the section that investigates family dynamics drawn
from or projected by the family photograph, as the photo-therapist and the
photo-theorist view them respectively and emphasises the contradiction of
assumptions acted upon within these related schools. There is also reference to this contradiction
in the section titled ‘The Meaning of Photographs Arises in a Narrative
Context’.
This section highlights the importance
of narrative context in family photographs.
How this questions their validity as memory aides and springboards for therapeutic
discovery leads to investigation of the structuring of these narratives. Cronin looks to Walker and Kimball Moulton’s
research (1989, cited in Cronin 1998:76), which argues that the four important
feature of family photography are verbal narrative, the privacy of a family
photograph collection, the limited audience of the collection and the
assumption of an owner who will manage the collection’s display. There is a cyclical relationship between
these four features, which emphasises Cronin’s belief that family photographs create
and maintain meaning. Walker and Kimball
Moulton maintain this idea when they claim that every photograph album has an
explicit narrative basis, but they also suggest that the narrator is aware of
the imperfect nature of the relationship between a photograph and the truth, as
the presence of the camera subverts the reality of the situation by its
influence.
Cronin then goes on to look at Edwards
and Middleton’s work (1988 cited in Cronin 1998:77) in relation to the social
aspects of remembering. This is in order
to demonstrate the bi-directional connection between relationships and
remembering. Relationships provide the
stimulus and ‘criterion of significance’ for the memory but relationships,
equally defined in these terms by memories, are open to construction and
renegotiation. The family photograph
provides a motivation for such actions. Cronin’s conclusion emphasises the
importance of the photograph’s contextual use as much as the content. She advocates a hermeneutic approach to
research, concentrating on the meaning ‘woven around a photograph’ rather than
simply its manifest content.
References:
Barthes, R. (1980) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography,
Paris: Editions du Seuil. (Translated Howard, R. (1988), London: Jonathan Cape
Ltd.) Cited in Cronin, Ó. (1998) ‘Psychology and Photographic Theory’ in Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for
Qualitative Researchers ed. by Prosser, J. Abington: RoutledgeFalmer 69-83
Cronin, Ó. (1996)
‘The meaning and psychological significance of family photographic
collections’, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southampton Cited in
Cronin, Ó. (1998) ‘Psychology and Photographic Theory’ in Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers ed.
by Prosser, J. Abington: RoutledgeFalmer 69-83
- (1998) ‘Psychology
and Photographic Theory’ in Image-based
Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers ed. by Prosser, J. Abington:
RoutledgeFalmer 69-83
Edwards, D. and
Middleton, D. (1988) ‘Conversational remembering and family relationships: How
children learn to remember’, Journal of
Social and Personal Relationships, 5: 3-25 Cited in Cronin, Ó. (1998)
‘Psychology and Photographic Theory’ in Image-based
Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers ed. by Prosser, J.
Abington: RoutledgeFalmer 69-83
