Thesis Title: The research of John Pfahl's photographical images from viewer's aesthetics
By: Sajad Rabani
Supervisor: Dr. Mohammad Khodadadi Motarjemzadeh
Degree: MA
Course of Study: Photography
June 2020
Abstract
This study describes the concept that can be traced in the work and sayings of the American photographer John Pfahl. Through this, will move on to approaches to the position of the photographer as an observer. Therefore, the necessity of examining the effects of divination will be expressed in the following cases:
Pfahls photographic action was created during a fundamental shift in the general understanding of the photographic medium. Factors such as color photography and rethinking the everyday (William Eggleston), the important influences of conceptual art and its evolution in photography as well as in digitalism in the following years. It causes photographers like Pfahl to focus not only on the photographic objects, but also on the photographic action itself, the action of seeing, the relationship between the action of seeing and the photographic image, and the mechanism of photographic image perception. Examining this part of Pfahls work, while explaining the foundations of this personal work, will help us to address the above issues, which are also part of the basic topics of modern photography.
In addition, Pfahl refers to themes such as the relationship between the sublime and the beautiful in landscapes, the picturesque character of landscapes, and the concept of destruction. He links photography and photographic perceptions of landscapes with the historical life of landscapes. On the other hand, mediums such as photography, painting and graphics are important as methods from the history of creating images. These areas will provide infrastructural experiences in seeing. Because they will be considered as platforms for action. An action whose mechanism is based on the tools and economics of the current situation, that is, achieving what is necessary for historical moments.
Thus, the study of divination in his works and his relationship with others, historically and his artistic position among others, is an aspect of the final review of the status of a researcher who does not yet have a detailed analysis of the necessity of artistic action. His will be an entry into the necessary discussions about the active figure of the artist. This figure can be an art student.
Keywords:
Observer, photographic view, mechanism of perception, manipulation, john pfahl, picturesque.