- Title
- The use of photography to visualise abstracted narratives of emotions associated with trauma
- Creator
- Warner, Lauren
- Subject
- Port Elizabeth (South Africa)
- Subject
- Eastern Cape (South Africa)
- Subject
- South Africa
- Date Issued
- 2021-12
- Date
- 2021-12
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/54585
- Identifier
- vital:46726
- Description
- The purpose of this qualitative research study is to comment on the use of photography to visualise abstracted narratives of the emotions associated with trauma. This is a practicebased study developed on the interweaving of theoretical and practical output. The practical output produced a photographic body of work which argues in favour of an abstracted narrative for the visualisation of trauma by engaging with visualised emotions associated with trauma. The theoretical output of the study relates to three visual themes: firstly, the direct or actual moment of trauma; secondly, the triggering of the traumatic experience and lastly, the abstracted narrative of emotions associated with trauma. Photographing a traumatic event freezes a moment in which the subjects are continually engaging in the traumatic experience. Sontag (2003: 93) asserts that this type of direct photographic representation should be discouraged for fear of aestheticising pain and desensitising the viewer to horror. The study aims not to visualise actual traumatic events, but rather to engage with abstracted narratives of emotions associated with trauma experienced or felt, both directly and indirectly. This is achieved by firstly, providing a context on how the role of photography dealing with trauma has evolved to move beyond the depiction of an actual traumatic experience. Secondly, Gillian Rose’s (2016) Visual Methodologies Framework is introduced and photographers Roger Ballen’s Cut Loose (2015) and Jo Ractliffe’s 1999 work entitled Vlakplaas: 2 June 1999 (Drive-by Shooting) analysed as visual expressions of trauma. Similarly, photographers Robert Frank’s 1978 work entitled Sick of goodby’s and Manuela Thames’s 2019 work entitled Trauma are analysed to reflect on the use of abstracted narratives as they comment on personal traumatic experiences. Lastly, the body of work produced in the practice-based output of the study, Public Places: Private Spaces, are analysed as a vehicle through which emotions are associated with trauma. These traumatic experiences are visually expressed using abstracted images in triptych narratives. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge by critically addressing ways of thinking about the visualisation of trauma. This provides insight into the topic of trauma and the various ways in which it could be visualised without depicting the actual trauma (with the potential of continuously wounding or replaying trauma) and instead engaging with the visualised traumatic experience as an abstracted narrative within a South African context.
- Description
- Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Visual and Performing Arts, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (95 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Warner, L.pdf | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |