I adore this image. Isn't it sassy? It's my grandmother. This is actually a reproduction of the original print my mom found in a box after my grandmother passed away. After seeing this photo, I knew I wanted to frame it and display it in my room. (It's currently on a bookcase in my bedroom.) My mother refused to part with the photo, so I had to make a copy of it. After being rejected at Walgreens for copyright legalities, I attempted to persuade the photo department manager at Wal-Mart. Nope. She wasn't having it either, but after some pitiful begging, she consented and permitted me to make a copy. Yes, I'm a criminal.
I don't have too much of a context for this photo. I don't know when it was taken or for what purpose. And I think that's why I'm so drawn to this photo--it's ambiguity. Allegedly, this photo was taken by a professional photographer unbeknownst to my grandmother's father, who would have--according to my mother--disapproved. I like this image for two reasons:
- This image represents my grandmother when she was not my grandmother. I did not know this person, which is an odd idea for me to fully understand.
- This actual image is a picture I took w/ my iPhone of an illegal copy of an original photograph that I'm now posting to a blog.
I think the connections here between media, circulation, and copyright are intriguing. As Helmers and Hill note in their introduction to Defining Visual Rhetorics, a picture's meaning depends on its dissemination and reception. This photo, like all others, depends on the context of its dissemination and reception in order to understand its meaning. So, in this context, what is its meaning for me? What is its meaning for you?
Cool photo and cool story, Jen. For me, this image is one on my class's blog by a classmate for an assignment. It is something on which I am choosing to comment because I am required to respond as part of the same assignment and because I find it approachable. In this case, the "dissemination" is very defined and perhaps confined as well. The image appears to me on my laptop screen in the context of the blog's page, your comments, my own desktop background, etc., and, as you explained, I am seeing it through your iPhone's lens in a frame bought to hold the copy of an original. It's all very meta, assuredly more so than your grandmother could have intended when she had the photo made. Aside from being posted to this blog, the photo has been re-appropriated by you to display in your home as a reminder of your family's history. Which to me articulates the distinction between intention and function that we were talking about last week, because, as you said, the person in this photo is not the one who would have thought about what her grandchildren would think/do if they saw it.
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