Uniform, 1946
Rhetoric of photo-image in the function of visual communication and canonization of the ideological matrix of masculinity identity
Sonja Briski Uzelac
Photography as a striking medium of visual communication, with its multiplied and aestheticized image, was an ideal means of articulating, producing and representing the ideological concept of the "new man" in the construction of Yugoslav socialism. The photographic representation and rhetoric of the photo-image does not simply reflect reality, but creates "photogenic images" of the model of that reality, which supports the myth of progress as a "historical task". Therefore, reading these images (dis) reveals "embellished" realism as photo-realism, because in the media nature of photography itself (close-up, editing procedures, conflict of plans, views, etc.) it functions in a pars pro toto way. Its ideological instrumentalization thus acquires educational, pragmatic and other roles ("re-education") in the process of translating "socialist humanism" into everyday practice. The coding of photo-images as patterns of collective practice can be traced to various forms of their use in visual and ideological canonization, and thus in the construction of male identity that was built as an iconic sign of male power through body, suit and appearance. Therefore, the photo-image is first articulated as informative and representative and then as aesthetic. However, in the vast majority of examples, it is extremely aesthetically sensitized in the authentic manner of the visual culture of modernism. Although it is in the function of stereotyping (creating stereotypes of masculinity: mission, strength, health, male "beauty" that canonizes "male" types: official, soldier, athlete, brigadier), the dress code is carefully present, like a "male manifesto" which distills the actual image of the layout.
Keywords: medium of photography, photographic representation, ideology of socialism, mythical rhetoric of photo-image, stereotypes of masculinity
* full text available on request.
* The scientific research project Men's Manifesto was launched by Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing (CIMO) in 2014, when it was supported by the City Office for Culture, Education and Sports of the City of Zagreb and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia (2014-2019).
* The text is part of the research work on the project: Men's manifesto: construction of stereotypes and representations of "male fantasies" - clothing, appearance, typology and forms of social functioning of male power in the era of Yugoslav socialism, CIMO, 2015.
* The text entitled Rhetoric of photo-image in the function of visual communication and canonization of the ideological matrix of masculinity identity was presented on October 2, 2015 as a statement at the Conference: Socialism on the Bench, Second International Scientific Conference: Socialism on the Bench: Socialism: Construction and Deconstructio, Pula, 1. - 3- 10.2015,
http://www.unipu.hr/fileadmin/datoteke/CPKIS/socnaklupi2015_KNJIGA_SAZETAKA.pdf
A more extensive version of the text has been published: Sonja Briski Uzelac, Geoepistemological Critique of the Image, in: Nataša Lah, Krešimir Purgar, New Critiques of the Image, Rijeka, Faculty of Philosophy, 2020, pages 51 - 84.
* Photo: private archives t.v.
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