Components of a Photographic Pictorial Structure and their Characteristics – through Examples of 20th Century Family Photographs

Abstract

The private photograph can be interpreted as a complex medium. Which can capture a wide range of visible segments of the “reality” and the activities realized in it at a given moment. The associated memories, shaped into narratives, complement all of this with further information that illuminates the internal contexts of the pictorial content, the interpretation of the depicted situation, and its broader context. The set of content that sticks to the photos is therefore layered. The aim of this study is to systematically analyse the private photographs’ explicit content layers, i.e., the components of the visual information on the “surface” in order to reveal their properties influence the interpretation of the deeper content layers. To this end, to review the more important characteristics of time, space, persons, and events shaped into a two-dimensional visual element, the author uses as a source more than 2.000 family photographs, which material is a part of her visual ethnographic research related to lifestyle change.

Photo: From AI photo collection