Photography, representation and representativeness: the aesthetics of Steven Meisel

• Grant number: 15/19555-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: January 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Journalism and Publishing
• Principal Investigator: Denis Porto Renó
• Grantee: Lenes Donizeti Moreira Júnior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project life map and analyze the techniques of composition most commonly used by fashion photographer Steven Meisel, in order to understand the articulate aesthetic photographer and the meaning effects mediated by the use of these techniques with respect to the bodies policy, the representation of social groups and the issue of consumption and sexuality. Meisel's work stands out to establish a critical dialogue with the traditional fashion photography, incorporating the main elements while displacing them from their traditional places. From the study of the forms from which Meisel undertakes such displacement, this research project aims to determine how they are articulated repetitions and translations of meaning in photographic composition Meisel from its narrative structure, its form encoded organization. For this, will be used as an analytical methodology proposed by Umberto Eco on image analysis, involving the five levels of photography decomposition (namely iconic levels, iconographic, tropological, topic and enthymematic). We will analyze these images from the perspective of the effects of meaning that the composition techniques to engender glimpse what were woven meanings in the work of Meisel.