Barthes's "The Photographic Message" & The Bank Collection

                It is nearly impossible not to notice the images we are surrounded by every day. In today’s society, we are informed by various types of media. Newspaper images, advertisements, the nightly news, and especially online images relay different messages to viewers. Barthes states that the photographic message is a result of three components. The first, the source of emission, are the people responsible for creating and editing the image, such as a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, the team creating an ad campaign, or the graphic designer adding text and effects to the image. The second component, the channel of transmission, is the physical medium through which the image is displayed. This includes the image’s surrounding elements. In a newspaper article, the title and text on the rest of the page, as well as the location of the image, have an influence on its importance and meaning. In a newspaper, one might search for the article about the image on the front page. This differs from the advertisements placed throughout a magazine; the viewer is forced to look at the ads while reading through. The third component, the point of reception, is the public viewing these ads, watching the news, surfing the web, and reading the newspaper. Depending on their age and interests, some might disregard the image while others are influenced to respond to it.

                Barthes goes on to explain the important relationship between an image and its surrounding elements. A press photograph is encompassed by a title, caption, or article. Though the image and text are separate elements, the photograph often further explains the text or vice versa. In the Field Museum’s exhibit about September 11^th, many of the labels under the photojournalistic images stated the date, subject, and exact time the image was taken. Even though the images were already quite representative of the day, the text further emphasized the reality of the disaster. In the press, shock value from images such as these is increased by urgent titles and informative text. Barthes relays that the article encompassing the image doesn’t analyze the image in this type of context; thus, the viewer can make their own assumptions based on the image and text.

                Our trip to view the Bank Collection was impressive and extremely informative. Upon walking into the bank, our class was deceived by the small number of landscape photographs in the teller area, to be seen at a distance. Soon enough, we were brought to a vast and incredible collection upstairs. Whitney, curator of this vintage collection, was kind enough to show us rooms upon rooms of the work, collected by the likes of Beaumont Newhall. Original photographs hang in all of the spaces, including dining rooms, offices, hallways, and board rooms. Whitney mentioned that people become rather attached to the work decorating their offices and become interested in the pieces. The collection is intended to be insular, as it is for the bank associates, but some of it is now on display elsewhere.

Under the Arts in Our Community program, fifty exhibits are currently touring and rotate every six months through five public art galleries. The push right now for the Bank Collection is to build communities based on the work it has collected since its start in 1967.  The bank uses this as an advertising and marketing tool; corporations have a responsibility to show the community that they care about their interests. Rather than use other art forms, the bank can reach out to society with such a democratic art form as photography, as people can relate to and appreciate it. The bank hasn’t run into as many issues with the exhibit touring as housed in the museum. Whitney recalled several instances in which work had to be taken off the walls because it made workers uncomfortable. She would have to comply because it is a work area. Perhaps this is because responding to art is foreseen at a visit to the museum and might be unexpected at the work place.

On the forty-third floor, the Bank Collection starts off with street photography. Whitney stated that this was intentional, as she wanted to open the show with ‘the decisive moment.’ She does this perfectly by displaying Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Behind Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1932. Throughout the other rooms, works by such artists as George N. Barnard and Walker Evans ranged from one historical subject to another. Some ancient photographs revolved around the Civil War, while others showed cities and landscapes both at home and afar. Amazingly enough, many of the pieces were acquired directly from the artists. Hopefully those that have the access to view these photographs during an average work day truly appreciate their significance. The Bank Collection is one that could easily be displayed at a museum for its amount of renowned and revolutionary photographs; it was quite a privilege to be able to view such a collection.