It is entitled Judith Scott: Capturing the Texture of Sensation and analyzes Leon A Borensztein's famous photo of Judith Scott hugging her own sculpture. Why does this photo have such emotional power? This photo was chosen for the cover of Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy and Performativity by Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick.
The borders between interior and exterior, between subject and object, between imaginary body and sensed body are activated through this photo of Judith Scott and her work. Scott's body presses against her artwork with all the windings and bindings, embracing it as if it were alive. Her face penetrates its surface and this exchange comes to us through the membrane of the photo. Victoria Mitchell
The article was about how photographs can elicit strong emotional response within the viewer.
Reading it, I considered my own blogging and how I try to make my photos reach out and touch the reader by including my own hands at work.
Some words used in the article:
Affect: the effective mobilization of feeling which is non-conscious and pre-verbal but also relational and active
Haptic: an experiencing of touch that we feel not only with our skin but also inside our bodies.
Haptic Vision: The eyes function as an organ of touch.
Texture rich photographs of textiles are transformative of that which they capture.
When the flesh of a human body engages with textiles and is captured in the smoothness of a photograph and then the cornea, it's affective.
When arms and hands are caught in the act of touching cloth, the texture of the cloth can be felt through the photo. Better than if the body is absent from the photo.
There is an affective moment when we feel we are being touched through the photograph.
The viewer becomes bound emotionally into the image.
All images are of a new piece made from a re-configured wool blanket.
I'm couching one side of it like a drawing, and I like how the reverse side is like a carving.
