Photography
1
Context
& Narrative
Assignment
4
Essay on
“Allunaggio in Via Vigevano 10” *
Milano 1969
By Toni Nicolini
*
“Moon Landing in Vigevano Street #10”
Toni Nicolini,
“Allunaggio in Via Vigevano 10”, Milano 1969
Published in “Poesia
del reale” *
978-88-6965-696-5, 2016, Ag. Contrasto srl , Via Nizza 56, 00198
Roma, Italy
page 123
* “Poetry
of the real”
Introduction
July 20th, 1969: at 20:18 UTC the Apollo 11 space mission accomplishes the
first moon landing in the history of humanity.
Toni Nicolini (1935-2012), born in Milano, who, after Classical studies,
abandoned university and dedicated himself to photography, shoots this photo in
that summer night of the moon-landing.
Even if I conducted a deep web search, I could not find any further new
or author notes about this image: nevertheless, this lack of information gives
me the chance to do my fresh personal analysis and interpretation, exclusively
based on image, title and tools.
In this essay I will try to deconstruct Nicolini’s image and I will make
use of semiotics tools introduced by Barthes and explained in Project 2.
Denotation
The black & white image is shot from the interior of a typical and
run-down “casa di ringhiera” (literally “house with railing”) in Milan’s
suburbs. The railing is well visible in the bottom side of the image and,
together with the open window in bottom and right side, builds up a partial
frame.
The viewer is leaned against the windowsill of one of the few open
windows overlooking the central court.
The central court is enclosed by the walls of the block of flats, so
that it is impossible to see the open horizon.
In the central court a car and a scooter are parked. A woman is getting
out of the apartment in the ground floor with a basket in her hands.
The right side of the building reaches the front side in perspective,
closing the view and framing a small piece of a white, overexposed sky in the
upper-left corner. The outside walls are careless, scraped, spotted by dust and
smog as most metropolitan buildings. Most of the windows and doors are closed.
The windowsill is dirty as a result of dust and smog. In close-up, at
the tv, there is a Special Edition News broadcast hosted by a popular anchor man
of that period. The broadcast talks about the first moon landing, July 20th,
1969.
It is a real scene, shot at natural dusk light, by medium-high speed,
grainy film, medium format and maybe a tripod. The focus is on the anchor man.
The not so shallow dept of field and lack of distortion make me think that the
focal length could have been more than 50 mm.
Sign
The point of view is from an open window and there is the possibility to
see the sky: however, it is a claustrophobic image. The composition is made in
order to surround the viewer with high walls, railings, closed doors and
windows. All this gives an overall sense of “jail”.
The use of black and white and grey cast contributes to create a sad,
miserable and hopeless atmosphere.
In all this depression a television, common symbol of the passive
fruition of an impersonal message, becomes the tool in order to use active
imagination and fly away.
The human presence looks incidental (the woman with the basket, the
anchor man) but the role of the “man-in-the-box” could be crucial in the
narrative of this image.
Signifier
The formal elements are the open window, the television/anchor man, the
railing, the building surrounding the central court, closed doors and windows,
the car, the scooter, the woman with the basket, the sky.
All these elements conceptually relate to dualisms like imprisonment/liberty,
resignation/hope, earthiness/mooness.
There is another conceptual dualism between the window-screen of “here
and now” and the tv-screen of “somewhere and now”.
Imagination is the main tool, fed and amplified by a television
broadcast.
Connotation &
Signified
broadcast about moon-landing (symbol of liberty and openness), while
standing in a delimited place (symbol of closeness).
Outside the frame lies the horizon and, beyond the small piece of white
sky, the moon. What lies behind the camera? Toni Nicolini had his photographic
studio in Via Vigevano. Maybe the shot was taken in his studio. Maybe he was
working in that moment, and the background tv broadcast took his attention: he
turned himself, the camera in his hands, and just freezed that historical
moment. Maybe he had already an idea in his mind and imagined that this was the
window from where he could take off, riding his imagination.
In Nicolini’s image the overall composition carries out several dualisms
and ambiguities so that the viewer has the possibility to build his own
narrative. Is it a typical outcome of a poststructuralist approach?
Nevertheless, the two meanings are not necessarily antithetical and could
cooperate in order to complete the narrative.
Punctum
The television and the anchor man announcing the moon landing,
considered as a whole, are the punctum: this whole, well in focus in order to
be used as a viewing starting point, disrupts the negative narrative made of
claustrophobia, depression and drives a positive narrative based on imagination
and sense of hope.
The punctum, as a conceptual window that will take the viewer to the
moon, opens the horizon through imagination and abstraction.
It creates a conceptual connection-line between the two image’s corners:
the one with the punctum itself and the one with the sky. The sky, so empty and
meaningless if watched as it looks, becomes the catalyst of imagination and
gets a major role in the overall image.
The mutual (even if paradoxical) support between the two meanings gives
to the punctum the role of a tool to “fly away” from that lunar place and reach
the lunar place by definition.
Conclusion
Nicolini’s image is strongly symbolic: the title’s ambiguity emphasizes
the symbolism and stimulates the viewer to spend time with the picture, solve
all dualisms and give to each element its role.
This image somehow stands as an “escape” from the personal style and
overall works of Toni Nicolini: he was mainly focused on urban/suburban
landscapes and street/social photography. His works remembers me William Klein,
Robert Frank, Cartier Bresson, some works from Magnum Agency.
This singular image drives the viewer out of these analogies and make me
refer to Bill Brandt (i.e. the “Portrait of a Young Girl, Eaton Place 1955”).
What is the studium of this picture? Could it be the representation of
the desire to leave, to escape, to fly away, to fight against urban and social
deprivation?
By my opinion “Allunaggio in Via Vigevano 10, Milano 1969”, so grey and
claustrophobic at a first look, celebrates the human progress giving the power to
imagine and hope.
Formative feedback
Student name
|
Giorgio Colonna
|
Student number
|
514841
|
Course/Unit
|
Context & Narrative
|
Assignment number
|
4
|
Type of tutorial
|
Written
|
Overall Comments
Hi Giorgio,while this is an interesting piece in which you raise some thoughtful points, it does, at this stage, need some reworking in line with the suggestions made below. You’ve clearly deconstructed the photograph in terms of denotation/connotation but your observations need to be backed up with more rigorous research into relevant critical theory.
Importantly, I suggest a re-examination of Barthes’ punctum – there is no universality in the punctum – it is that ‘accident’which, he says, ‘pricks, bruises me’– perhaps the ‘me’should be emphasised, as he is focusing here on the viewer’s unique subjectivity.
Use the essay to showcase your enquiring mind and capacity to synthesise visual and theoretical research with your own ideas. Keep it simple. I’m happy to follow up on your re-drafted version, by email.
Feedback on Essay
·
The image you have chosen is intriguing, historical, fascinating. Try reframing the denotative elements in terms of perspective and framing, for example. The image places the viewer indoors, but the TV is outside – slightly surreally. Your point on claustrophobia is strong and carries over from sign to signified… There is an associated sense of uniformity, compartmentalization and the man-made environment (social/economic/physical/political?).
· Your essay demonstrates a good semiotic understanding of denotation/connotation – key considerations in photographic theory.
The image you have chosen is intriguing, historical, fascinating. Try reframing the denotative elements in terms of perspective and framing, for example. The image places the viewer indoors, but the TV is outside – slightly surreally. Your point on claustrophobia is strong and carries over from sign to signified… There is an associated sense of uniformity, compartmentalization and the man-made environment (social/economic/physical/political?).
· Your essay demonstrates a good semiotic understanding of denotation/connotation – key considerations in photographic theory.
· However, your subtitles overcomplicate by breaking down Denotation, Sign and Signifier into separate sections. These terms all share essentially the same meaning, so one sub-heading will do. Similarly, Connotation and Signifier are essentially the same.
· With regard to Barthes’ notions of stadium/punctum, this may require another reading. Studiumis understood to be the overall sense, theme, scene, mood of an image – the ‘universal’ message of the image that will reach the majority of viewers, if you like. Punctum, then, is that element of the image that strikes the individual in some strong way, perhaps triggering to a personal memory, for example, or prompting an association with something outside the main subject in the image; it provokes a very individual (almost incidental) response in the viewer.
Possible lines of enquiry:
· Is the moon landing actuallysignified (denoted) by the image? Or purely by the title? Would the uninformed viewer know anything of the moon landing from the image alone?
· The title and date signify the event; in this case, the image alone does not. Perhaps what is ultimately signified is a change in human consciousness – a leap in perception - through various technological means?
· The image calls for a discussion on the specific power of photography itself in terms of “freezing” time, particularly as the visual cues in this image have matured over time to produce, on one level, a fascinating window into the past (unintentionally but inevitably). How might a contemporary reading of this image differ from a 1969 reading, in meaning, for one thing? I would recommend the essay Fire and Ice by Peter Wollen (a vintage classic!), particularly for the description of photography’s special power to “freeze time” (and the silence of the image).
Some general points on form & structure:-
· See if you can use quotes to strengthen a particular viewpoint – but avoid use of quotes as shortcuts to making those points.
· Insert footnotes to reference quotes in addition to your bibliography, using Harvard referencing. (There is a guide to referencing on the student website under Resources.) Microsoft Word enables you to insert footnotes and page numbers easily.
· Use the final paragraph to wrap up the main points of your essay – how the photographer’s style lends itself to this reading of the image; the themes of universality and familiarity that draw you in; the passing of time and the opposing forces within the image.
· Test: Read the intro followed immediately by the summary – does it make sense even without the main body of the essay? The conclusion should relate directly to the introduction (rather than making some new points and then stopping).
· As a general rule, academic writing should avoid use of first-person ‘voice’ wherever possible, except perhaps in footnotes, e.g. “In my opinion…”, “I think/feel…”
· Presentation: When preparing your final draft for assessment, make sure each page is numbered and includes your name, course & student no. Use 9 point Verdana font or similar, with line spacing at 1.25 or more.
Coursework
Diane Arbus wrote very eloquently about her subjects first-hand and the writing is in places both revealing and thought-provoking. (I can point you towards some good examples if needed.) I mention this here just as an example of how the coursework can be used as a launch-pad for you to delve deeper; finding out what the artist herself had to say (rather than Jobey in isolation) would make a good counterpoint to this piece of coursework.
Research
There needs to be more evidence of research in your learning log.
Learning Log
· While good on the whole – showing engagement – there are gaps. For example, at the time of writing you have not yet reflected on your tutor feedback.
· Part 4, Project 2 – Research Point – there needs to be some evidence here of your reflection on these texts.
Suggested reading/viewing
· Wollen, Peter, ‘Fire and Ice’ in Wells, Liz (ed.), The Photography Reader, London and New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 76-80
· Documentary & Story Telling in Photography: The Key Concepts by David Bate (also relevant for assignment 5)
Strengths
|
Areas for development
|
Excellent choice of image after consideration of other images (decision documented in your LL?)
|
Re-examination of Barthes’ studium/punctum
|
Thoughtful analysis of image
|
Recommended restructuring of essay sections as above
|
Good understanding & application of semiotic theory
|
Use your learning log as a journal in the same way as you did for assignment 3, including space for research and reflection - for next assignment.
|
Pointers for the next assignment
Consider the connotations of the overall light and hue (‘mise-en-scene’) and reflect upon your choice of its appearance in your image.
Do show awareness of the tableaux form in historical and contemporary contexts. Some classic examples are listed below.
Some suggested visual references for assignment 5:
· The Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustave Reijlander
· Fading Away by Henry Peach Robinson
· The staging of stereoscopic tableaux (various)
(All of the above following the art-historical precedent of painted tableaux and single-point perspective)
· Lottie Davies – Dreams & Imagination
· Tom Hunter (various works)
· Jeff Wall & Gregory Crewdson (it goes without saying)
· Catherine Balet – Strangers in the Light
· The use of single-point perspective in the films of Stanley Kubrick.
Reading:
Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein in Barthes’ Image-Music-Text (key quote attached).
And The Pictorial Turn in Art Photography by David Bate.
Reflection on Tutor Report and Rework
I am happy that my image's choice was appreciated by the Tutor. However she made some points that made me realize I did not go deep enough in my analysis and fell in some mistakes.
"Try reframing the denotative elements in terms of perspective and framing, for example."
"However, your subtitles overcomplicate by breaking down Denotation, Sign and Signifier into separate sections. These terms all share essentially the same meaning, so one sub-heading will do. Similarly, Connotation and Signifier are essentially the same.
· With regard to Barthes’ notions of stadium/punctum, this may require another reading. Studiumis understood to be the overall sense, theme, scene, mood of an image – the ‘universal’ message of the image that will reach the majority of viewers, if you like. Punctum, then, is that element of the image that strikes the individual in some strong way, perhaps triggering to a personal memory, for example, or prompting an association with something outside the main subject in the image; it provokes a very individual (almost incidental) response in the viewer. "
Then I collected the kindle version of the book "Basic Critical Theory for Photographers" (Ashley la Grange, Elsevier, Focal Press, 2005 ed.) and read the chapter 4, covering Roland Barthes and Camera Lucida. I went back then to the opera itself and read about Studium and Punctum again.
I realized that I had misunderstood some points and revisited radically the essay.
Photography
1
Context
& Narrative
Assignment
4 - Rework
Essay on
“Allunaggio in Via
Vigevano 10”[1]
Milano 1969
By Toni Nicolini
|
Toni Nicolini, “Allunaggio in Via Vigevano 10”,
Milano 1969
Published in “Poesia del reale” [1]
978-88-6965-696-5,
2016, Ag. Contrasto srl , Via Nizza 56, 00198 Roma, Italy
Page
123
|
Introduction
July 20th,
1969: at 20:18 UTC the Apollo 11 space mission accomplishes the first moon
landing in the history of humanity.
In 1969 in
Milano the social & political context is sliding from the student protest
of 1968 through the daily clashes until the terrorist bombing and mass murder
in Fontana Square of December 12th, 1969.
Toni
Nicolini (1935-2012), born in Milano, who, after Classical studies, abandoned
university and dedicated himself to photography, shoots this photo, in that summer
night of the moon landing.
After a deep
web search, there are no further new or author notes about this image: nevertheless,
this lack of information gives the chance to do fresh personal analysis and
interpretation, exclusively based on image, title and social Italian context in
1969.
The black
& white image is shot from the interior of a typical and run-down “casa di
ringhiera” (literally “house with railing”) in Milan’s suburbs. It is probably
taken from Nicolini’s photographic studio.
It is a real
scene, shot at natural dusk light, by medium-high speed, grainy film, medium
format and probably a tripod. The limited shallow depth of field and lack of
distortion make me think that the focal length could have been more than 50 mm.
Nicolini’s
image is strongly symbolic: the title’s ambiguity emphasizes the symbolism and
stimulates the viewer to spend time with the picture, solve all dualisms and
give to each element its role.
Denotation, Sign, Signifier
The railing
is well visible in the bottom side of the image.
The image is
composed of several frames, one inside the other: the main frame is the open
window that contains the electronic frame of the TV and, in perspective, all
other frames made by open and closed windows. The railing frames vertically the
overview on the central court, and the building’s roof frames a small portion
of the sky.
The viewer is
leaned against the windowsill of one of the few open windows overlooking the
central court.
The TV is
placed over the external windowsill in a bizarre position, more out than in.
The walls of
the block of flats enclose the central court, so that it is impossible to see
the open horizon.
In the
central court a car and a scooter are parked. A woman goes out of the apartment
in the ground floor with a basket in her hands.
The right
side of the building reaches the front side in perspective, closing the view
and framing a small piece of a white, overexposed sky in the upper-left corner.
The outside walls are careless, scraped, spotted by dust and smog as most
metropolitan buildings.
In close-up,
at the TV, there is a Special Edition News broadcast hosted by a popular Italian
announcer of that period. The broadcast, as stated by the title, talks about
the first moon landing, July 20th, 1969.
The point of
view is from an open window and there is the possibility to see a small portion
of sky. Walls and railings surround the viewer
Connotation & Signified
The use of
black and white and grey cast contributes to create a decadent, miserable atmosphere.
Walls and
railings give an overall sense of claustrophobia. From another point of view,
all this gives a sense of protection or isolation from outside (the horizon).
A
television, common symbol of the passive fruition of an impersonal message,
becomes the tool in order to use active imagination and fly away.
The formal
elements are the open window, the television/announcer, the railing, the
building surrounding the central court, closed doors and windows, the car, the
scooter, the woman with the basket, the sky.
All these
elements conceptually relate to dualisms like imprisonment/liberty,
resignation/hope.
There is
another conceptual dualism between the window-screen of “here and now” and the TV-screen
of “somewhere and now”.
Imagination
is the main tool, fed and amplified by the television broadcast.
In order to
better connote the image, the viewer needs to approach it with the help of the
title. Without this help, the uniformed viewer would see just a TV and
announcer.
Nevertheless,
there is a dualism between the TV that is, back in 1969 or now in 2018, a
“window” on the open world, and the real window on the closed court.
The human
presence looks incidental (the woman with the basket, the announcer),
nevertheless the quiet of the normal life is connoted by the woman with the
basket and the announcer could signify the announce of the event that will
change everything.
The title “Allunaggio
in via Vigevano 10, Milano 1969” amplifies ambiguity: the image could recall
the position of the viewer in this lunar suburban landscape; it could even
refer to the TV broadcast about moon landing (symbol of liberty and openness),
while standing in a delimited place (symbol of closeness).
Outside the
frame lies the horizon and, beyond the small piece of white sky, the moon. What
lies behind the camera? Toni Nicolini had his photographic studio in Via
Vigevano. Maybe the shot was taken in his studio. Maybe he was working in that
moment, and the background TV broadcast took his attention: he turned himself,
the camera in his hands, and just freezed that historical moment. Maybe he had
already an idea in his mind and imagined that this was the window from were he
could take off, riding his imagination.
In Nicolini’s
image the overall composition carries out several dualisms and ambiguities so
that the viewer has the possibility to build his own narrative. Is it a typical
outcome of a poststructuralist approach?
Studium & Punctum
Providing
that there is no further description of the image, no interview to the author
regarding the image itself, the spectator will rely on image and title only.
Here in Via Vigevano, in July 1969, there is no
trace of political & social tension of that year. There is the
architectural decay of Milano’s suburbs and the quiet of the woman with the
basket in a quiet, protected court. Compared
with
Milano’s urban situation, it is like to land in another planet, as recalled by
the image’s title and the announcer.
The TV and
announcer, well in focus in order to be used as a viewing starting point,
switch the quiet but sad mood, driving to an overall positive sense based on
imagination and hope.
There is a
connection-line between the two image’s corners: the one with the TV and the
one with the sky. The sky so empty and meaningless if watched as it looks,
becomes the catalyst of imagination and gets a major role in the overall image.
What, as
Barthes states about punctum, pricks me and triggers my memory is the announcer
at the TV. This makes me think when I was 9: the family watching the black
& white television. My uncle, who had migrated to Brazil some years before
I was born, had returned to Italy for the first time since. I met him for the
first time in the morning, and he gave me three presents: a mini radio, a pocketknife
and a raw topaz. In the evening the entire family was in front of the TV while
I did not care of any first step on the moon and had eyes only for the small
radio box. That technological gift was the only one that catched my attention.
Conclusion
Nicolini’s
photography was mainly focused and therefore involved him in street/social life.
His works remember William Klein, Robert Frank, Cartier Bresson, some shots
from Magnum Agency.
This image
somehow stands as a deviation from Nicolini’s style: it signifies a jump from a
grey, degraded but quiet, secure “planet” directly to another planet, avoiding to
look toward horizon and watch all that social mess.
“Allunaggio
in Via Vigevano 10, Milano 1969”, so grey and claustrophobic at a first look, shows
a celebration of hope through the mental escape from a decadent but secure
shelter to a new place, beyond all social disgraces.
