Reading Photographs: A Semiotic Approach from Daguerreotype to the Digital Age
Daguerreotype photography arrived in Singapore as early as 1844—just five years after Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre unveiled the medium to Parisian society. In her research on photographers of early adopters like the Peranakans, art historian Theresa Tan draws on Roland Barthes’ concept of the denotative sign (where the image as signifier meets the concept as signified), and John Berrger’s theory of photographic framing—what the image chooses to reveal, and what it omits. Theresa proposes a semiotics framework for ‘reading’ photographs beyond the visual surface. She invites the reader to consider: Who is in front of the camera? Who is behind it? Who is around it?
Join us as we explore how the same interpretive methods can be applied to contemporary photographic images in this exhibition.
About The Photography Show
This exhibition casually looked at the photograph’s metaphorical representation approach of being funny, serious, or both. This exhibition collates works from artists of different forms and makes that narrates the story of life, its social issues such as popular culture like social media and fake news, and human behaviour and societal relations in our current times. Some works touch on socio-political climate, and others are more provocative that critique religion and systemic oppression. These works are without a serious curatorial presence and also void of any critical judgments, a pure visual journey, and experience for the audiences to enjoy be it a humorous take or meditative thought to bring back.
Participating Artists:
Chi Peng, Francis Ng, Kenny Low, Pan Yue, PHUNK, Umibaizurah, Zhang Peng, Zuoxiao Zuzhou.
About the speaker, art historian Theresa Tan
Theresa Tan is a member of the UK’s Association for Art History. She holds a Master of Arts in Asian Art Histories (Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London and a Bachelor of Science (Computer and Information Sciences) from National University of Singapore.
