Charlotte+Moyer+1RA+Draft

The draft is as yet relatively unorganized so bear with me there...

Barbra Morgan was originally trained as a painter and taught at UCLA from 1925 to 1930, when she was introduced to photography by Edward Weston. Shortly thereafter she moved to New York where she began to experiment with various photographic forms,including light drawing and photomontage. She is primarily known as a dance photographer from her work with Martha Graham, whom she met in 1935 and formed a lasting relationship with. Over the course of her career, Morgan photographed many dancers that have come to be seen as masters and pioneers of their art: Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Jose Limon, Erick Hawkins, and others. Many of her images have become iconic representations of dance and of the particular dancers she worked with, transforming an art of movement into static images that carry the force of the dance.

Tossed Cats 1942 As a photographer primarily of dance, Morgan was extremely interested in motion, movement and action. Here, the act of tossing the cats causes the motion of them in the air, and they act to right themselves so as to land proverbially on their feet. This particular picture is eye-catching among the rest of Barbra Morgan's simply because of subject. It is one of few published pictures she took of animals, but in many ways it still lines up closely with the rest of her work, detailing motion in midair as many of her dance pictures do. These pictures are entrancing because they encourage the mind's eye to finish the action, extrapolating from the one frozen instant of the image through until the subject is once more stable on the ground and yet the actual image remains a static symbol of the movement in progress.



Merce Cunningham, Totem Ancestor, 1942 This picture is from one of Barbra Morgan's dance series, where she catches a quintessential moment in the dance Totem Ancestor. Again the subject, the dancer Merce Cunningham, is caught midair, halfway through the act of jumping. His legs are folded under him, his hands cupped upward, his head thrown back. the lines of the picture are clean, drawn from the position of his body and the lines on his outfit, and the lighting intentionally shadows him emphasizing his upturned face. The backdrop is lit and shaded in such a way as to imply the sky and the picture was taken so that the floor is not visible and the dancer is closer to the top of the frame than the bottom, rendering it impossible to know just how high above the ground the dancer is at the moment of the photo. Unlike the cats, where the end point of the action is quite clear, this picture catches the minds eye by being less straight forward. What came before and after this instant is mysterious enough that the moment remains in isolation. Partly by that suspension in the moment, and partly by the pose adopted by Cunningham the photo suggests a deep joy, ecstasy even. His hands, feet and face are all turned upward, towards the strongest light source and the illusion is that of leaping joyously in a sun-drenched field somewhere.



Martha Graham, American Document, 1938 Another dance picture, this image has three subjects mid leap. Three dancers are synchronized in their movements, leaping away from each other. Their poses seem casual, save that they are carefully matched, arms outstretched, one leg tucked back and the other elegantly pointed ground ward. They are wearing matching white (or nearly white) dresses with black accents at the waist and elbow. Their pulled back dark hair streams behind them, adding to the sensation of motion and balancing the brightness of their dresses. This picture, like the others, was taken mid-leap, the dancers in this photo portray an air of carefree abandon, their white dresses suggesting innocence and their carefully choreographed pose nonetheless evoking children skipping in the summer, an illusion that the expressions on their faces do nothing to dispel. their raised leading arms balance their leading legs with a pleasing symmetry, and like the previous pictures, the cats and Merce Cunningham's Totem Ancestor, the eye focuses on the inherent movement of the picture. Like the cats, here the mind seeks to finish the action, playing the moment forward until the dancers' toes touch ground.

At the first glance, the clear trend in these pictures is that of suspended motion. Each picture captures an ephemeral moment that could only exist as part of a movement without the intercession of the camera to freeze and preserve the instant, like a pressed flower. These moments however, were not merely captured, they were carefully choreographed, first by the creator of the dance or the nature of the cats, then by Morgan herself as she set up the shot in her studio, taking many photographs in order to capture these essential images.

Images from (http://www.scottnicholsgallery.com/artists/barbara-morgan/)

Engl 340 1st Paper: Peer Review Questions

** Note ** : please address "why or why not" for each question below

Hi Charlotte Moyer, you found some really sweet photos that have a definite theme among them. I hope that you find my comments helpful. ~Jason Frey


 * 1) Does the writer understand the concept of a rhetorical analysis and does the paper demonstrate its application? Why or why not. Give suggestions.

I think at this point in the writing the paper has some characteristic of a rhetorical analysis and these attributes are repeated for each photo in a very logical way. In the comments I have stated that we should have some more background about each photo—let us know where and why it was published, what was the demographic of such photo, what was the photographer thinking (or make some speculation) when they shot the photo, what made the photographer interested in taking photos of air born individuals?


 * 1) What argument / communicative purpose does the paper describe for the photographs it uses. Is it appropriate? Effectively presented? Why or why not. Give suggestions.

I did not find an argument or communicative purpose. There is a theme/ commonality that was presented throughout and at the end of the paper about the three photos being of “suspended motion”. I think that once more background research is done and brought into the paper a communicative purpose may become more apparent. Without any knowledge of were these photos are from or who they were made for I would say that their purpose is persuade people who love theatre and dance to remember how much they love it and go see more shows, or to reminisce about the “Totem Ancestor”, for example, and think about the deeper meanings that lie behind the dance. I love the theatre and have yet to see a dance or show that did not have an underlying message. Maybe you could find a common message and create your argument out of that?


 * 1) What is the argument claim put forward for the photograph(s) under analysis in the paper? Is it appropriate? Effectively presented? Why or why not. Give suggestions.

I have not found an argument claim put forward for the photographs under anaylsis in the paper. Maybe the claim could be that the photo’s represent something like freedom or peace, not a care in the world when floating in space?? Refer to question two for more suggestions.


 * 1) What did you like about how the various visual/rhetorical theorists (Berger/Faigley/Ramage/Blakesly&Brooke/Barthes) were used in the paper? What could be improved about how the paper uses these theorists? What suggestions do you have for the writer? Be as specific as possible by discussing each theorist one at a time and how the paper uses them. Also, give suggestions of theorists that the writer does not use but might be useful in his/her rhetorical analysis.

None of these visual/ rhetorical theorists were yet used in the paper. I could see some use of connotative vs. denotative descriptions but there was no reference to the theorists. The paper could be talked about in terms of Ramage’s, “three dimensions of identity”. The “readymades” of these photos could be the preconceived views that people have made up about dancers, their clothing, the idea of throwing cats (I personally have cats and was a little upset at this photo), which has a massive affect how the viewed will view the photos. Blakesly and Brookes’ “nature of spectatorship” could also be used through out this paper. There is already some evidence of this, but maybe go deeper into the meanings of each photo; are there any metaphors this photo //speaks// of? Who can identify with these photos?

Liz Stone

Your analysis of these photos is loose. Too much time is spent discussing the photographer and not the photos themselves. It seems as if you have no argument or claim until the end of your paper where you pose a theory but you do not provide enough evidence to validate it. There is also a lack of reference to rhetorical theorists who could have greatly enhanced your paper.