Bauernfeind+final+installation

The Work(s)
[|Photograph taken from Nina Berman's][|Homeland Portfolio]

Materiality and Production
This work is a photograph in the photojournalism field of photography as opposed to a more artistic approach to photography. I am assuming that Berman used some kind of high end digital camera to take these pictures although I could not find anywhere that stated this. A person must be at least moderately skilled to be able to photograph a particular moment and have it framed and set up properly while also getting correct lighting, depth, etc.

Presentation and Market Value
This photographed has been displayed at many exhibitions that are detailed in her blog and on her website, also a 196 page book with 90 color photographs entitled //Homeland// was published in 2008. This book is priced at around $50 on Amazon.com if purchased new and about $30 used. This puts a monetization on her work already because it has been through a publisher and is sold to the public on mainstream websites. I think that the fact to that Berman has published multiple photography books definitely shows that her skill definitely has a correlation to the monetization of her work. Also, she has been displayed in multiple galleries worldwide and is praised by critics from all backgrounds.

Visual Grammar
The work above by Berman is defintely closer to the center range of all of Kress' markers to determin the modality of an image, because this is a real world photojournalistic photograph there really is no room for drastic artistic change. This would be extremely closs to Kress' notion of realism. The photograph is take at a social distance because we are not in extremly close proximity to to the subjects but not too far either. Kress' would also consider this a offer gaze because no one in the photograph is looking directly at the camera. The viewer is simply gazing at the subjects of the phototgraph engaging in a particualar act. According to Kress there would be no sense of power between the photographer and the subject because the photo is taken at a straight angle without being above or below the subjects. One of the most noticable things about this photo is the obvious vectors between the child and the soldier showing him how to hold the gun or whatever he is doing. The man in the far background of the photo also seems to be gazing at the the main subjects of the photo.

Theory / Meaning
I think that this photograph and all the other photographs in Berman's //Homeland// portfolio meaning, not only as aesthetically skilled photographs but also they definitely have a political and social meaning in the post 9/11 world. As Berman says in her description of these photos they were supposed to represent the militarization of the country in the post 9/11, war on terror world and I think they accurately do this. The photo above is of a Marine showing an extremely young boy how to hold a very large gun. In this "weapons display" children pass around guns like they are plastic toys. This must be part of the Marines "get them while they're young" program. As far as a notion of Art with a capital A I think that to some degree there still needs be an understanding of what Art is. While all visual culture can be considered art with a lower case a, some visual culture, including the photojournalism of Nina Berman and others should be held up as Art. One of the main reasons this should be considered Art is that it makes a meaningful political statement about the country, also it has been published as a in a full color book and displayed in many galleries and showings.

[|NPPA Photojournalism Awards]