mohammad khodadadi motarjem zadeh

It has become a reality in the world of contemporary visual media that some of images and visual texts attract viewers and researchers to their similarities with other images - in a real or imagined way - while furthermore, constantly encouraging them to discover and examine an intra-textual relationship and interaction. Conducted as comparative and descriptive-analytical research, this intra-disciplinary study compared two works of fine art: Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan’s photograph of Zell-e Soltan. As part of this comparison, it employed the qualitative method of Gillian Rose’s post-constructionist discourse analysis to explore the intercultural interactions as well as the constructed discourses in the two images and to investigate the influence — or lack thereof — of apparatuses of power on the development of those discourses. The research questions were: “In the studying the artworks, what discourses are constructed and how are they constructed?” and “In what way are they similar in this regard?” The findings indicated that Velázquez and Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan have constructed, as both the artist and the subject of their piece, a different and dominant body of themselves without any influence from institutional systems and by sidelining power holders. In both images, the discourse of art and that of politics are in conflict with each other, and both artists, by adopting the same representation approach, implicitly point to and highlight the overpowering of politics by art. It seems that in this historical intercultural interaction between the East and the West, Abd-ol-Khalegh Khan was influenced, as an artist, by Velázquez’s critical approach in Las Meninas in the creation of his photograph.

Today, millions of people around the world use digital cell phones and social networks to produce and share modern cultural products across a wide geography. The importance of virtual communication networks stems from the fact that the audiences of such networks are able to play a role in both consumer and producer positions. Among the virtual social networks, Instagram is one of the networks that has become one of the most important communication systems of the last decade since its establishment (2010) due to its popularity and significant growth in terms of user attraction. Instagram is an instant mobile photo sharing service that quickly came to the forefront. One of the reasons for the success of this communication system is the consumption of photos and video images, which has become one of the most import‌‌‌ant social trends in virtual communication today. In the book Instagram and Contemporary Images, Manovich highlights the importance of Instagram, in addition to aligning the network with the camera, cell phone mechanism, as well as sharing everyday images, and believes that this feature not only distinguishes Instagram from other similar visual programs, but also shows new generation of photos. In this book, after reviewing photos shared by Instagram users, Manovich divides them into three types: casual photos, professional photos and designed photos. Manovich After comparing photos of casual and professional with similar counterparts in the twentieth century, he specifically considers the type of designed photos belongs to the era of the rise of Instagram. The type, which he believes is unique in its aesthetics, is the result of a combination of individual choices and Instagram features. He attributes this type of photography specifically to the period he calls Instagramism. Due to the novelty of the subject and the importance of its reflection in other interdisciplinary studies related to art, media and culture, This research intends to introduce the type of designed photos with a descriptive and deductive analytical method and compare it with photographs of conceptual art style. Data collection in this study was done using library documents and written electronic sources and the theoretical foundation of research is based on the views of Lev Manovich in the book of Instagram and Contemporary images.The photographs used in the study were also purposefully selected based on the selection and display criteria of the photographs designed by Manovich. Also, photographs of conceptual art style that have been selected for comparison with the designed photos style have been selected qualitatively and according to the prominent features of the style of conceptual art photos. Based on the similarities, the research findings show that the style of the designed photos can be enumerated along the life of the photographs of the conceptual art style. Also, It is recognized that the differences between the two groups have been influenced by the context in which Instagram is presented, as well as the features of mobile cameras. Two important factors that make them stand out against each other regardless of the structural similarities between the two groups of their goals.

From the perspective of mythologists in the fields of art and literature, the mythical study of art or literature works would be the most beneficial kind of studies because by decoding mythical parts of them the most essential parts of them would be realized. In this way the mythoanalysis method of gilbert Durand is a mythological method of analyzing art or literature works with the purpose of identifying the same roots of contemporary artworks and myths created by ancient people. By using this method some reasons would be found for repetitive motifs in artist works except the reasons depend on artist life experience. In other words, this method search the reason of repeating one motif in archetypes and collective unconsciousness. So the hypothesis is that mythical scenes and motifs are hidden in today photographic pictures which are coming from artist unconscious. therefore American staged photographer; Gregory crewdson whose photos have a reputation for being imaginary is a good choice for this kind of studies. In this paper mythoanalysis of gilbert Durand would be used to analyze crewdson photos in order to identify mythical scenes and motifs in them. This method has three steps at first repetitive motifs should be found and at next step by studying social or political circumstances some of that motifs would be considered as reaction to the circumstances in addition some of the motifs would be the reactions to the artistic atmosphere of era. Finally in third step the motifs which are probably coming from artist's pure imagination all together can form a network of metaphors and symbolic meanings which is similar to a mythical network, story or creature. In this paper three steps have done and At last discoveries show that Hecate is mythical creature which is hidden in crewdson works and is represented unconsciously in some motifs which are repeating without any special external reason. For instance, crossroads are repeating in Crewdson photographs and Hecate is the goddess of crossroads and her sculpture prayd in crossroads. Also Hecate has two different faces one of them is the face of night and scare and the other one is a helper for pregnant women amazingly in crewdson photos two different face is shown for women one of them is pregnant and the other one is mysterious and frightening. In addition to this two similarities some other ones discovered so the similarity between the network of unconsciously repetitive motifs in crewdson's photos and Hecate shows that hypothesis is true about this photographer and this method help to find new points of views about his photographs because usually in psychoanalysis of his photos some personal reasons and his memories had been used to interpret his works but know some archetypes which are shared between all the people in all eras and locations can be used to interpret photographs of this contemporary artist.

This article tries to analyze and critique the book “Aesthetics of Photography”, according to set criteria. Francois Soulages, the author of this book, is an experienced professor in the field of aesthetics and philosophy of art in France. The book has an acceptable quality of print and published. There are few typographical errors, fluent prose, and footnotes, references, indexes, and bibliographies. Despite a few minor flaws, the book sounds well.  The translation of the book to Persian is also fine. Thematic variety and proper distribution of the book's contents in three general sections and 12 chapters have been done very cleverly. In terms of content, the book has been able to challenge the issues related to the aesthetics of photography from different perspectives and useful case studies. By constantly using the method of dialectical reasoning between conventional and unconventional metrics (in terms of type and time), Soulages has done very well in understanding the concepts of contemporary photographic aesthetics from the standpoint of a French expert and has been able to provide a useful perspective on contemporary aesthetic effects. The introduction of some influential photographers of late is also one of the desirable contributions of the book. The book contains very useful information for the university photography community in our country.

Joel-peter witkin is an American contemporary staged photographer whose photographs of dead or deformed bodies, androgynous people and other controversial subjects in addition to strange stories about his life usually draw analyzers attention to his personal life and they have written psychoanalytic texts about his works based on Freudian method of psychoanalyzing. But in this paper the purpose is to overrule this kind of analyzes and based on Jungian method of psychoanalyzing this study is to experiment this hypothesis that: the reason of repeating some motifs in witkin's photographs has a root in collective unconscious mind not personal unconscious mind and childhood memories or complexes. Myths are the most important representations of collective unconsciousness so if the hypothesis is true there should be similarity and relation between witkin's repetitive motifs and a mythic creation, story or theme. In this paper at first repetitive motifs in his photographs has been realized and their connotative or metaphorical meaning has been studied and considering other artists works and the other external circumstacens the motifs which are coming from his unconscious mind not under the influence of circumstances have been identified. study showed that motifs which are unconsciously repeating in wiitkin's photos are: binary contrast of live-death , male-female, unraveling of unknowns(breaking the taboo) and sadomasochistic acts(enjoying pain). then the myths which are represented obviously in witkin's photos has been analyzed to find out what is the relation between them and repetitive motifs. study showed that witkin selected some myths to take photos which are completely aligned with repetitive motifs and in some cases he wasn’t careful to represent them in their correct mythical theme he changed anything to make his own interpretation of them. At last based on discovered information and by putting repetitive motifs together a mythic story has been found. Putting repetitive motifs together a network of mythic creatures has been represented: Hermes; a mythical androgynous creature who guide souls to the underground world(death world) and is also prophet and transfer messages between gods, and Hermes son; Pan, which is a mythical creature who enjoy sadistic sexual behavior and intimidating people, and Hades; the god of the underground world who is in relation with hermes and they meet each other. so In conclusion not only the hypothesis has confirmed but also by comparing some Freudian psychoanalytic interpretations of repetitive motifs in witkin's works and mythical interpretations of them a new point of view presented. For instance fragmented bodies in his photographs were interpreted by Freudian analyzer related to his childhood memory of an accident in which he witnessed the cut off head of a little girl. But this study showed that dead bodies in pieces are always represent with fruits and herbs so the motif changed to binary contrast of live and death which is similar to Hades; mythical creature which is the god of the death world but at the same time it is the god of harvest and its sign is a horn of fruits and herbs.

With the beginning of Freud’s critique of psychoanalysis, a great change took place in the field of critique: since before Freudian psychoanalyzing method, all the critics were analyzing art and literatures based on artists’ conscious mind and their conscious intentions, but after that analyzers focus on unconscious mind to interpret artworks, and Jung who was one of his students, offered ideas on evaluation and in some cases even opposition to his ideas. Jung considered the unconscious mind to be individual and collective. The purpose of this paper is examining the relationship between Arthur tress’s artworks, American contemporary staged photographer, and the individual and collective unconscious mind. This photographer was chosen because Tress is very interested in studying Jungian psychology, and dream is an important concern for him, so investigating these artworks would not be far-fetched. This article seeks to find the reasons of repeating some components or themes of Tress’s works, which are likely attributed to his unconscious mind. This research was carried out by analytical-historical method, and in the first stage, Arthur Tress’s works were analyzed using Jung’s special method and terms regarding individual unconscious mind, and then in order to examine the effect of the collective unconscious mind on his photographs, these works have been compared with the myths that certainly attributed to the human collective unconscious mind. Therefore, in this stage of the research, the critique method of Gilbert Dorna’s mythoanalysis was used, which was based on the study of the similarity between the repeated themes in today artists’ works with ancient myths. The findings show that some of recurring themes in Tress’s works are rooted in his individual unconscious mind which is related to his personal life and memories. In addition, as these themes are perfectly aligned with the themes of ancient myths, it can be concluded that human collective unconscious mind has an important role in forming this photograph’s works.

The photographic works of the Iran-Iraq war during a period of thirty years from 1980 to 2010 have been published in the form of 80 books in Iran, and a review of the titles of these books shows that all of them include a collection of works based on A period or works of a photographer or a subject have been formed. What has not been addressed in the meantime and has received less attention with caution is the analysis, evaluation and review of the works of war photographers as visual documents of the historical event and the explanation of the visual narrative of this event which has been focused in this research. The reason for choosing the period 1980-82 in this article, is clear for the beginning of the period and refers to the date of the beginning of the war. The professional, spiritual and emotional conflict of the photographers with the event that affected all aspects of people’s lives, after two years from the beginning of the war, reaches an important historical climax, and that is the conquest of Khorramshahr. Until this date, which is the third of June 1982, the best works of photographers are formed at the peak of spiritual and professional interaction with a historical event. Then, just as a historical event enters a long period of erosion, war photography changes from an ideal and motivational activity to a repetitive task, and in fact neither an important photographer nor an important current emerges in War photography takes shape. The main purpose of this article is to compare the content of photographs of the Iran-Iraq war between 1980-82 as visual documents with written documents from the same events that have been published in the form of the calendar of the history of the holy defense. The theoretical approach of insight in this study is based on the analytic history view of Robin George Collingwood and the method of analyzing content that has qualitative and quantitative qualities combined in summative content analysis. The period of research from the beginning of the war to the conquest of Khorramshahr is about 22 months, and 667 photographs have been selected from the series of “imposed war” volumes. In the written history section, the collection of “Holy Defense History Calendar” series was reviewed by the Army Armed Forces Holy Defense Research Center in the form of a 17039 reference page. After identifying and extracting visual and textual categories, the illustrated history and the written history of the war are compared. The results of this research show that both the photographs contain some concepts and messages independent of the written text, as well as some information that the written text does not exist in the photographs and cannot be presented in the picture. Generally, imposed war photographs are mainly the domain of determined concepts and the revealing of emotions and internalities, and the written text in most cases uses the ability to process historical information and design undetermined concepts.

This essay is trying to analysis and critique the book, according to determined measures. This book has great and new information about contemporary Photography theories. Authors in every section focused on the special subject. Book includes seven main sections and the great attached text. It would be clear, by review forms and contents of all sections, this book as well as pay attention to recent discussions in Photography theory.Refersto too much credible references are very reliable. Almost of sections are very useful for teaching courses of Photography theory in University. Translate this book to Persian language is reliable. Every section of book isn`t depended to another, Thus every sections can be as a book. At last the book is more Description the theories thanto be Critique of Ideas.

The present paper looks upon one of the most influential periods in the history of the world and especially the United States; the revolutionary 60’s. It is most probable that among all the artists whose names are tied to this decade, Diane Arbus has the most ambiguous relation with the political atmosphere surrounding her. She never pointed her camera at the protests and the major figures during those years and instead devoted herself to shooting photographs of people who were marginalized by the society due to their physical or psychological characteristics. The present paper aims at this very ambiguous state of the relation between Arbus’ works and the sixties as well as an endeavor to reduce the intensity of this ambiguity or at least present some appropriate questions regarding it. For the purposes of this paper, library findings about Arbus’ works and the political atmosphere of the sixties were investigated using a critical method. The results demonstrated that there is agreement between Arbus and the protests during the sixties regarding how both of them turned away from the society dominating its outcasts. However, unlike the 60’s revolutionaries who considered this tendency as a chance to make a fundamental change, Arbus found it as a surrender and feeling of frustration in making changes.

This essay will attempt to analyze and interpret the form and content determined by the structure of the book “Acting the part: Photography as Theatre,” (translated to Farsi in 2014). It is a descriptive-analytic study and by referring to four chapters of the book it will try to deal with origin, effectiveness, benefits and shortcomings of the book. In the course of analysis and research it reveals that the book was published on the occasion of a photo exhibition in Canada, and each of four chapters of the book has a specific aspect to theatrical photography. Few occasions such as the triple roles of actor, narrator, and artist for the sake of the photographer; the photographer as a storyteller; explanation of alive photography and examples of well-known photos in social documentary scope can be considered as book’s innovations. However, aggregation of diverse opinions expressed in the mold of a book is not homogeneous; and it ends without any final conclusion. The book acts successful in case-thematic study for stylistic and historical aspects of theatrical photography (Staged Photography), but cannot entirely represent all historical and stylistic aspects of this field of photography. Translation, editing, printing quality and layout of the book is desirable. In the absence of adequate resources in Farsi, this book is useful for enthusiasts and students of photography.

The audience's perception of the work is the culmination of the contact's interaction in the art system in which the audience achieves its understanding by assessing the work. Before the process of interpretation, the paraphrasing of the work, readings are made: Reading means the discovery of hidden message effects. In an attempt to construct a coherent concept of the work, the audience chooses elements of the work and organizes in a coherent whole such as presenting the narrative of the work. Audiences have different receipts in dealing with artwork. The initial assumptions in the perception of the work create a framework in which the next contents are interpreted. It's interpretation lead to the perception and understanding of the work. Past experiences of the audience, level of education, and gender are effective in reading works. The act of perception always begins with the prior knowledge and we associate new thing with what we already knew. Accordingly, the research hypothesis is that the male have abstract approach and female have a concrete approach photo reading. In this paper, with the abstract/concrete reading, and at a level beyond the interpretive / paraphrasing discourse, the exposure of the audience with selected photographs from NioshaTavakolian, GoharDashti, Ehsan Bagheri and Creative Photography Magazine have been investigated. By examining variables such as gender and education in reading and interpreting the audience from the photo, one can differentiate their views into two levels of interpretive (abstract) reading and paraphrasing (concrete) reading. Since among different arts, photographs have become more popular among the general public than visual media, and it has been used as a measure of research variables. The research method is qualitative and is used to study and categorize readings using the focused interview and gender approach. First, the concepts of reading, interpretation, paraphrasing, and narration as readings are discussed, and then the differences between the views of female and male and their relation to the readings and narratives of the photo are referred to, and finally, the narratives are separated which obtained from Focused Interview. Considering that in the Iranian society, women and men have different living experiences, so their views and way of dealing with phenomena such as pictures are different. Education is also effective in interpreting and paraphrasing audiences. Women use readings more than men to interpret and paraphrase. Women and men used different tools and narratives. Women initially start with emotional words and phrases, such as addressing the subject's feelings of a photo, explaining the meaning of photographs in the form of emotional descriptions and even after finding meaning, in most cases, in order to better understand the narrative of the photo with the focus of emotional criteria, they use abstract concepts, in such a way, these emotional descriptions confirm their abstract descriptions. In contrast, the men, in the face of a photo, they first seek to discover the distinct symbols and semantic codes that appear in the external photo and then by creating the rational ratios between them, they try to discover the meaning and interpretation of the photo.

In this article, the specific dis tinctions in form and content of the book In Praise of the Real (two volumes) are examined and its functions in the current Iranian artis tic-academic community are discussed. In addition, by analyzing some characteris tics and features of the book, its overall content is examined and criticized. For this purpose, the conventional four criteria are applied as the main method of analysis and critique. These criteria consis t of (1) the general introduction of the work and the author; (2) the external analysis or the inspection of the origin of the work; (3) the internal analysis or the discussion of the position of the book, and (4) the critique and evaluation of the content of the book. By reviewing the s tructure and the content of the book repeatedly, this article concludes that the re-publication of mos t of the book’s content is not only useful but also necessary for the current Iranian society. In addition, if these two volumes, with the same material, were divided into three independent volumes, each book could have an exceedingly deeper impact and had a more specific audience.

This essay is trying to recognize the use and fault of this book from different views. And with process, could be showing the formation and applied specificity.
At first, the Critic is showing the holistic approach to translating Photography books and condition of Photography publishing texts in IRAN, specially publishing in various field of Photography by Universities.
After words, Critic has begin to Investigation this Book according to: Introduce Book and Author of holistic view, External analysis of Author`s aim, Internal analysis of state and formation of Book, And critique and assessment the Book in Iranian Society.

At last, He concludes this book (Exhibiting Photography) in spade of faults in Form and Translate, For Academic society, Specially Photography society in IRAN , is very useful. But if, This book and other books like it introduce to whole of the Universities and Art centers.

Fortunately in recent years in IRAN, Semiotics arguments in Literature and Art study are noticed by researchers. In according to, The Denotation and Connotation functions in photography are updated and expanded. Thus, necessary bases for continuing this argument are available.
Although Denotation and Connotation are belong to Semiotics Area, But in Photography, specially Critique of photograph so very useful. In overall view, it seems photograph with similarity Specificity with it`s subject, thus connotation isn`t important. The Document specificity in the most of photographs has approach to denotation meanings. But many researches in this area, like Pierre Guiraud, Daniel Chandler, Louis Hjelmslov, specificity Roland Barthes show this subject(connotation meaning) is very important. Maybe most of others, Barthes argued about meaning and reading the photographs, Also more of others applied these titles. Really The Connotation of many subjects and events is more important than Denotation, Even in Documentary photography area.
This research tries to reveal not only ability of Connotation but reveal function of Connotation with analysis several Questions in various kinds of photographs specially for Critique of Photograph. To achieving this purpose, author selected several famous photographs and few ordinary photograph. Then according to hypothesis and the famous Ideas of several theorists in this area, he write text in two whole parts with titles: ‘Review basic definitions’, and ‘Emergence qualities of photograph Connotation’. Also he set the important arguments in detail parts with titles (challenges): The connotation is of photograph be result of photographer attempt. The connotation could be result of title or statement role of photograph. The connotation could be result of gathering the still visual elements in the photograph. The connotation could be only cultural reading or reflections of viewers by ignore photographer`s aim and desire. The connotation could be result of politic- cultural managers` functions. The Denotation in compare with Connotation is illusion.
Author wants to show that function in many causes is more provocative, important and influence than Denotation. In this way, He is questioning Connotation that formed by Changeable elements like: Photographer`s aim, Composition of the picture elements, the Viewer`s behavior and belief, The Political- Cultural direction with mass media power in different societies, and direct (explicit) explain about photo.
Author try to analysis his founded data in ‘Indication method’ and try to show the different function and influence of connotation (as changeable element) are in various areas. Although major specificity of photograph is resemblance with it`s subject, But in different situation meanings of the photograph are different. And important point, This challenge and argument about it more and more noticed after 1980s, even about older photographs or older movements in photography genres.
At last, Author concludes, Definition between Connotation and Denotation is not necessarily, and not useful today. In present time, borders of text and out of the text (as physic and metaphysic) of photograph seem to be ambiguous. Thus, He Suggests to Applying new titles for this argument, Like: ‘Major Significance’ and ‘Minor Significance’ or ‘Powerful and Weak’ Significances are better than old Meanings.

The Tehran museum of contemporary art has held photo annual and biennial since 1366 and 12 exhibitions have been held so far; moreover, it is one of the most important places for presentation of photos and photographic thinking in country. Ninth and eleventh Iran photography biennial were similar approaches and artistic and creative photography was considered for photographers as a goal but so far no research has been conducted to study these biennials as well as the results of these approaches in Iran. The word of creative in the field of Iran’s photography has very wide application and also was a considered approach for these biennials that are the most important events of photography in Iran but in the contemporary era of Iran artistic and creative photography has several definitions and different institutions and individuals have provided definitions for these words and creative and artistic photography refers to cases that lack clear and objective definitions, thereby photography biennials of Iran are continued and cultural event and have participants from all over the country and include very different works and perspectives. Identification of the formed artistic approaches in this biennial is one of the aims of this research. This text tries to reveal the facts of photographer perception about the artistic photography over two periods of time. The need for formation of application of these words and survey of doubt and ambiguity in application of these words is another goal of this research. In this research, proposed approaches in these two periods have detected with review of photos and critiques. Research methodology is descriptive and analytical. The most important results of this study include: 1. the condition for having creative approach for photos has been mentioned in the call of these two periods; however, no clear understanding of creative approaches has been provided nor any specific examples can be found for it. 2. In a section of ninth biennial’s pictures, for achievement of creative vision and artistic photography, graphical methods have been used, and in the other section, simple and normal photos have been selected, also in the eleventh biennial, photographers with artistic and creative approach often have recorded pictures with attractive subject and therefore it is concluded that participants of these biennials do not know the subject of artistic and creative photography and this issue reveals both ambiguity in understanding and lack of enough knowledge in the field of definitions and examples of artistic and creative photography in Iran’s photography society; thereby the need is recognized for further study and knowledge.

The first paper money of the world was published in China. From the beginning, the creators published illustrated paper money. The tradition of illustrating banknotes continued in Europe, too. After paper money’s being widely used, many images appeared on the front and back of the banknotes. Among these images, portraits of important characters like kings and state leaders are significant. First portrait of a king was released in France in 1789 on the paper money. From the beginning of paper money publication to the invention of photography only four portraits of kings were published on paper money.From the beginning of publishing notes in Iran in 1889 portraits of the Shah of Iran (Nasser-al-din-Shah) was put on paper money. During the Qajar era, the main axis of decorating and designing the banknotes was using the image of the first person in the country, and then plant motifs as well as writing style and the lion and sun emblem were also used. The image of Nasser-al-din-Shah, as the first important person of the country, was used on banknotes for 35 years so that there was no image of other Qajar kings and historical monuments and landscapes on the banknotes. These portraits are the result of the works of famous photographers of that time like Abdullah Mirza Qajar and William and Daniel Downey (photographers of royal court of Queen Victoria). Accordingly, 23 series of banknotes published from 1890 to 1933 have been explored in this study via referring to centres of preserving documents and archives of the related photos as well as library study. Though there are numerous books about photography and banknotes, there is no discussion about the photo portraits used in designing the banknotes and the photographers of such photos.Thus, this article aims to introduce, first, the photo portrait of kings used on Iranian banknotes and, then, identify and present the used photos on Qajar banknotes