IC w5 A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose os a rose

I remember the sentence a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose from my childhood. I thought it was a song but I can't find it again. There is, however, a book with roughly the same title.

Book: A roos is a rose is a rose by Paul Geerts

The book is about the rose being one of the most used symbols in world literature, for many poets it is even the symbol of symbols. And just as there have been poets over the centuries who eventually renounced the rose as a cliché image, there are others who subsequently dug it up again. So there will always be poets and there will always be roses.

If we look at a photo of a rose, we will always see a rose in it and a cauliflower is a cauliflower as long as it is recognizable as such.

However, the moment it is not recognizable, we start looking for what it is.

Sontag (on photography p71) says about that: The painter constructs, the photographer reveals. That is, the identification of the subject of a photograph always dominates our perception of it - as does not necessarily happen in a painting. The subject of "Koolblad" by Weston, taken in 1931, looks like a fall of collected cloth; a title is needed to identify it. So the image comes into its own in two ways. The shape is pleasant, and it is (surprise!) The shape of a cabbage leaf. If the collected cloth were, it would not be so beautiful. We already know that beauty of the visual arts. Hence the formal qualities of style - the central issue in painting - are at most of secondary importance in photography, while what is a photograph is always of primary importance.

The wedding portrait of Arnolfini 1434 by Jan van Eyck is a well-known painting in which all kinds of symbols can be found for those looking for it. A number of these symbols can also be found in the photo we took before our wedding in 1998. The mirror that represents the outside world and in which Jan van eijk can be seen has been replaced by a camera with a lens. The lens is not aimed directly at us, especially from the practical point of view that the object is then less recognizable as a camera. In addition, the camera is in the same place as the window and, as a result, is also a symbolic for the outside world. The dog, the bed, the burning candle, the attitude of the candles are all symbolic that we have adopted. Although most people who received the photo from us did recognize the reference to the painting, the question is whether people also understood and looked for the symbolism.

Because Sontag says: The painter constructs, the photographer reveals, I have become very curious as to whether this comparison is valid.

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Sources

• EYCK, Jan van. 1434. The wedding portrait of Arnolfini. Image from: http://st-ar.nl/the-values-of-the-market/ [accessed at 28 February 2020]

• GEERTS, Paul. 2006. Een roos is een roos is een roos. Belgium, Tielt: Lannoo.

• SONTAG, Susanne. 2019. Over fotografie. 1ste edn. De Arbeiderspers.[e-pub]