A hermeneutical approach to creative perception as an element in photography

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to mitigate the restrictions of ocularcentrism by employing an interactive hermeneutical approach to the creation and interpretation of the implied meanings in a photograph. The principles of hermeneutic phenomenology are applied to outline the putative strengths and weaknesses associated with ocularcentrism as applied to photography and to attempt to illustrate how the proposed model of aesthetic participation may overcome these weaknesses. The literature review shows that ocularcentrism is a mode of perception concerned with a one-sided preference to sight over the other senses and may limit photographers and perceivers to create or interpret meaning in a photograph solely on what they see. Concerning ocularcentrism, it is not the art object alone, but the self-centred worldviews of the photographer and perceiver that limit the basis for the development of an interactive aesthetic experience. The photographer who successfully challenges the ocularcentric worldviews of perceivers in the world of the work succeeds in initiating participation between all the coordinates of the proposed interactive hermeneutical model of aesthetic participation. Interactivity between the coordinates artist, perceiver, artwork and worldviews is achieved through the application of creative strategies during the creation of photographs. These creative strategies may include facets that contradict consistency building, illusion building, defamiliarization, irony, the deliberate stimulation or frustration of a perceiver's interpretation and the use of a known theme placed within an unknown context with a view on challenging the ocularcentric perceptions of perceivers. The application of any combination of these strategies is the decision of the photographer, who applies them according to the imaginary embodiment of the photographer in the position of the perceiver. The photographs produced by the author for analysis in this study presents three images which elicit allegorical, figurative and esoterical forms of interpretation. Each step of the hermeneutic phenomenological process was carefully documented prior to the analysis and are presented in the hermeneutic phenomenological format in conjunction with the proposed interactive model of aesthetic participation. The main point that emerged from this study is that a hermeneutical approach to creative perception as an element in photography will give rise to interactive participation between all the coordinates of the proposed interactive hermeneutical model of aesthetic participation and thus ocularcentric restrictions may be overcome by photographers and perceivers by employing an interactive hermeneutical approach when creating as well as interpreting the implied meanings in a photograph.