Street Photography- End Sems Assignment

I.C. Colony is a residential colony located in the northern part of Mumbai in Borivali (W). Its name is derived from the Church of the Immaculate Conception or  I.C. Church. The area has the largest concentration of Christians in Mumbai and sees crowds of over 10,000 people for it's Christmas midnight Mass and Good Friday Service. Through this photo feature I seek to document the colony I live in. 

 

When we were given street photography for our project and were told to select a location of our choice, the first thing I thought of, was convenience. By choosing the colony I live in, I knew it would be convenient for me to go and click photographs, whenever I felt like. Also if some photo was slightly bad I could easily go back to the same place and click it again. Some of the photos in this assignment were clicked post midnight as I wanted to show the streets at night, and this was another reason I chose a location close to home.

 

I asked an old man in the colony, whom I know and recognise from the days I used to wait for the school bus, about some places in the colony that haven't changed from the 1990's. He mentioned the fork at I.C. Cross Road No.2 and I.C. Cross Road No.3 and The Cross.

 

The Cross

 

Location: Holy Cross Road, I.C.Colony

The Cross which is symbolic to Holy Cross Road is located on Holy Cross Road Association Playground. Religion hypnotizes you, when you pray the world goes out of focus and only God and your desires take central focus. Here the zoom blur aims to show how only the cross(God) is in focus and the rest of the surroundings(and our other thoughts) are just a spinning blur.
 

The Fish Park

 

Location:  I.C. Cross Road No.6

Mumbai’s first ever Fish Park is located in I.C. Colony. According to the designer of this park, it is aimed at providing a relaxing experience to visitors as they observe the fishes swimming and swirling in the water. People who visit this park agree with that statement.The corporator who submitted the proposal for this park said that all parents can’t take their children to an aquarium. The park can be an aquarium as well as a play area for children.
The entrance of the park features a 3D mural of waves, shaped like an arch, atop which there are fish statues, from which the starfish and shellfish are prominent. The walls adjacent to the park have ocean based street art.

Entry to the park is free for the first 12 months.(till December 2017)

 

Street Art

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.5

How many times do people tell introverts to participate? Sometimes they try. On the rare occasions they do muster the courage to speak up, some people interrupt them as they live to talk, and in doing so force introverts to stay silent and retreat back into their shells. It's saddening that lecturers don't reprimand the ones who butt in whilst one is speaking. The silent ones have a different perspective, let them speak, let them express, let the quiet ones voice their thoughts and amaze us all.

An empty street at night

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.3

 

All the world's a stage(quote by William Shakespeare) and we wait for someone to get into the spotlight. Why not step into the spotlight ourselves, or do the lonely roads where few dare to venture, despite the spotlight, scare us? 

 

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Market

 

Location: I.C. Colony Road

A cat has a mid-morning snack of Golden Anchovies (Mandeli) in front of the fish vendors stall. A lady in the market who has just finished her daily bargaining turns to her friend and points at the cat saying, look at how lucky they are, they will never be affected by the increase in prices. The photographer and a few other shoppers couldn't help but chuckle after hearing that statement.

Market

 

Location: I.C. Colony Road

 

A second cat sits on top of the fish vendors storage freezer. He eats the last of his mid-morning snack of Golden Anchovies(Mandeli)

Market

 

Location: I.C. Colony Road

The fish vendor has laid out a part of the days fish on a board and cleans a Pomfret for a customer. The cat has finished licking the box and has now turned his attention to the board and is edging towards it. Possibly he thinks the Pomfret is for him?

Market

 

Location: I.C. Colony Road

 

A second customer shows up and asks what fish are available. The vendor puts up 2 palms and indicates towards the board on which there are Sharks, Pomfrets, Golden Anchovies, Mackerel and Prawns. She is then asked which one is the freshest to which she raises her right index finger and points at the prawns.

Market

 

Location: I.C. Colony Road

 

The vendor keeps the bag on the stump and fills it with prawns, while the customer stands with his fingers shaped like a hook, ready to receive the bag.

 

Street Art

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.5

Anyone up for music icons from the 1960’s? Street Art of the legendary Rock band 'The Beatles'. As exam time draws nearer it is their song " Yesterday" that I relate to(the song started playing in my head when I saw this painting on the wall). Things for the next fortnight are tough, the exam tension is here to stay, I want to go back to the relaxed last month when exam seemed so far off, but it is impossible.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday
- The Beatles

Animals

 

Location: Fork of  I.C. Cross Road No.2 and I.C. Cross Road No.3

A canine helps his friend get rid of any ticks that might be on his body. The smaller dog in the photo was scratching violently and trying desperately to shake them off before the bigger one arrived to help him out.

Street Art

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.5

Thought provoking street art. Through all the mess and the destruction, nature will find a way to reclaim itself. What do you think of the message behind this Street Art?

 

 

Street Art

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.6

 

Thought provoking Street Art. Unleash your thoughts, let them paint the world. Without your thoughts, the world looks so dull in Black and White. What do you think?

 

 

Street Art

 

Location: I.C. Cross Road No.5

This street art reminds me of my childhood, and also shows the kids nowadays what real cartoons were. Such a painting would stimulate interest among them, as present day kids are curious and would be eager to know more about the cartoons they see on the wall. Also the pavement with grains of sand takes me back to my childhood days where running on it was a very dangerous thing.(In this photo is the man hole cover on which I tripped over and damaged my knee last April)

 

Empty Streets

 

Location:  Fork of  I.C. Cross Road No.2 and I.C. Cross Road No.3

 

This is the other location that the old man told me about. After I showed him this picture, he said it looked exactly like the 1970's(except for the vehicles and the paver block roads) This is right at the heart of the colony and the link between the old I.C. Colony (the I.C. Cross Roads) and the new I.C. Colony(Holy Cross Road and Holy Cross Extension). I kept this picture black and white as a tribute to the colony which even as it evolves maintains its heritage in some way with the cross and buildings(some are almost crumbling but haven't gone for redevelopment) and the marketplace. The picture captures Dynamic Tension.

 

Apart from documenting my colony, I saw things in the colony that I see daily but, don't usually pay attention to. I saw that, the people in the marketplace are friendly and eager to help(they specially kept food for the cat so that I could get a photograph of that). I saw the Fish Park for the 1st time as I don't go down that road unless absolutely necessary(the documentary made me explore my colony). When walking down the dead ends i.e. Cross Road No.5, I saw that the stained walls of the buildings now were canvasses for amazing street art which provoked thoughts and evoked nostalgia.

 

The photo documentary made me take notice and realise that there are stories everywhere, which are much better than the repeated lyrics that are blasted in our heads with the help of headphones. If only one would remove the headphones, take a moment and look around, we'd see things in real life that we can carry with us. It helped me observe my colony and learn more about it, things that I hadn't known despite living here for just short of 19 years.

 

 

Theory of Media: Research Essay

(This was a research essay written by me for the 2nd Internal Assessment of the Theory of Media course. Over here we had to take any media theory/theories and use them to analyse anything of our choice to see how relevant it is in present context)

Uses and gratification Theory

The Uses and Gratification Theory is an audience theory and was propounded in the 1940s and revived in the 1970’s by Blumler and Katz in the 1970’s and 1985 by Rosengren, Palmgreen, & Werner(1) This theory is an audience theory which attempts to explain the role of the mass media from the point of view of the audience. It focuses on how people use the media to get various gratifications, which is a change from the Magic Bullet theory which say that media does whatever it has to with a passive audience.

The theory states that people chose what they want to watch to satisfy their own individual needs. The Uses and Gratification Theory shows us that in present day with the explosion of television content which is available on the Television set, Netflix, YouTube, etc. when the audiences are confronted by a vast number of choices they aren’t passive but are very active and play an active role in selecting what they wish to consume, indirectly they also decide which shows air more in the future and which shows are scrapped as viewership and downloads play a key role in production companies deciding their show line-ups for a particular season.

There are 5 types of gratifications. Due to hectic schedules people are very selective and very carefully decide what sort of television shows they consume. Phone usage, Ipod, PS4, etc., even though they are forms of media and can be used for gratification purposes will not be looked at.

Cognitive needs

Under this section, audiences use the media to gratify their need for knowledge of the happenings of the world and information. To gratify cognitive needs is the reason why audiences choose to watch the news channel or National Geographic, Discovery, The History Channel, etc. People even watch MasterChef to satisfy cognitive needs as it helps them gain knowledge of the methods and techniques behind cooking a particular dish.

 

Affective needs

It includes all kinds of emotions, pleasure and other moods of the audiences. In present day due to a hectic life people get stressed out and suffer from lack of happiness and are often in bad moods due to office pressure, college work, bad personal life, etc.

People select particular television shows to satisfy their emotional needs, programs whose content allows  them to be reassured Of their own attitudes and beliefs(2). Such shows can also be used to make people feel good about their own situations in comparison with others.eg. People watch shows like Indian Idol as somehow most of the contestants seem to have gone through immense struggles to get to where they are as in they are realistic and have real people with real struggles and real emotions so people can relate to them and know that whatever troubles they are going through are universal and not exclusively their own.

Personal Integrative needs

Personal Integrative need is the self-esteem need (3). According to this audiences chose to watch select television shows as it helps them improve their lifestyle and gain status and credibility in society. Audiences choose to watch cooking contest shows like MasterChef rather than a cookery show like Khaana Khazaana as MasterChef features home cooks whom they can relate to and imitate in cooking something which they can then feed to their family or friends and achieve status like best chef in the family or friend circle. Other examples of such shows that audiences choose to watch are Wild Weddings, beach life, décor shows, etc. Such praise really helps boost an individuals self esteem.

Social Integrative needs

Man is a social animal and must have contact with other human beings. In the current era of overload of media content Television shows there is that need to fit in by watching a particular show. The media provides the agenda for conversation and assists in the undertaking of social roles (1). A person watches a particular show for eg. The Flash, he likes it and tells it to his friend circle and a few more from that circle watch the show. Now one person refuses to watch that show and he will find himself getting alienated as he cannot connect with the group conversation that is occurring. Hence in order to stay socially integrated with the group he too will have to watch the show and consume its content whether he likes it or not.

Tension free needs

One last way in which media is used is just to escape from real life tension and stress and enter a world of entertainment and feel relaxed.

Some research has shown that using media can make us more relaxed, since it provides a momentary escape from whatever stresses are eating away at us(4). A momentary escape is what people need on most occasions. People watch their favourite sit com or put on music channels like VH1.

Some people argue that to rid oneself of tension one should just take a nap and ‘’do nothing’. "The idea that rest is something that you lie down and 'do nothing' is really not how the body operates," Matthew Edlund, a rest and regeneration expert at the Center for Circadian Medicine, says,"The body is always rebuilding itself, but it rebuilds much better if you vary activities. 'Turn off your brain' is not really what you want to do. What you want to do is engage your brain elsewhere."(5). Hence people consume media and engage their brain elsewhere.

The brain in a sort of limbo state of rest—neurons are still firing but the mind is not actually engaged—it's taking in a boatload of information but not processing it, so the brain isn't fully relaxed, but it's not being exercised either (5) The not being exercised is key here, the brain isn’t fully relaxed but it is much more relaxed than it would be at the time prior to the individual switching on his Television set.

Each of these levels is individual in nature and are satisfied differently according to each individual’s ownneeds. A particular program can be consumed for a different level of gratification by different audiences. For example some media users use a news show to satisfy their cognitive needs whereas other users will watch a news show for Personal Integrative needs as it helps them socialise with family members who watch a similar show.

 The Newshour with Arnab Goswami was most casual news watchers favourite news show as the “news” there was presented under the concept of a “debate” which somehow always ended up becoming an entertaining shouting match thus providing audience with entertainment and also satisfying the audience cognitive need.

I have two young children and they both enjoy watching and learning from quiz shows on TV, as do my wife and I. The people who say the shows are boring and should be banned must have an IQ of 50 or 500! One end will not be able to answer or learn from the show while the "Intelligent" end can answer the questions so easily it makes them tired, poor things! Have these people never heard of the ON/OFF switch?

 -John C, Warwick, England (6)

This quote shows us that people do watch quiz shows for their cognitive needs and shows us that some people do find quiz shows boring and a waste of time, they may watch it as something to gratify their social Integrative needs so as to fit in with a social circle.

 

 

 

 

References

(1)  https://www.scribd.com/doc/32903764/The-Uses-and-Gratification-Theory-as-Applied-to-Television

(2)  https://books.google.co.in/books?id=fMSQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=what+programs+do+people+watch+to+satisfy+their+emotional+needs&source=bl&ots=_Wyeg8vtxI&sig=hcNpQXnI5VWlaYrfp_ZkBBVx9TU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjoj7K3jPTRAhUEQo8KHVUSC-gQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=what%20programs%20do%20people%20watch%20to%20satisfy%20their%20emotional%20needs&f=false

(3)  http://communicationtheory.org/uses-and-gratification-theory/

(4)  http://time.com/3029797/watching-tv-to-relieve-stress-can-make-you-feel-like-a-failure/

(5)  https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/is-watching-tv-actually-a-good-way-to-rest-your-brain

(6)  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1035937.stm

 

Propaganda Theory

On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump announced his candidacy to run for the President of the United States of America and officially received the nomination of the Republican Party on July 19, 2016, at the Republican National Convention.(1) On the November 8, 2016 he triumphed in the U.S. Presidential Elections and became President Elect of the United States of America. How did a man who had never held elected office before beat out competition from senators like Ted Cruz and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to become the President?

He used Propaganda which targeted the vulnerable state of mind of the average people 

Harold Laswell’s theory of propaganda combined behaviourism and Freudianism. The power of propaganda was not so much the result of the content or the appeal of the message, but instead it is the result of the vulnerable state of mind of the audience to whom the message is directed to(2). Laswell rejected the magic bullet theory as one couldn’t just fire magic bullets to the audiences and expect them to be consumed (unless of course one is in North Korea). The audience plays an active role in interpreting messages and will get influenced by propaganda only if it is something that can solve the fears and problems they face which causes their mind to be vulnerable.

Firstly Donald Trump borrowed the Election Campaign slogan (Make America Great Again) used by President Reagan in 1980 (Let’s make America great again). He says that he invented the slogan himself post Mitt Romney’s defeat to President Obama in 2012. Laswell argued that successful social movements gain power by propagating symbols over a period of months or years using a variety of media. He used the example of the American flag, but even a message like a campaign slogan can bring back emotions to voters who were young at that time. They will now be in their mid 50s to mid 70s. Ronald Reagan with that slogan in 1980 won 489 out of the 538 seats. The slogan seemed appealing to the American people who came out in large numbers and voted for Reagan. In 1980 making America great was something like the need of the hour as Iran was holding American hostages, and the Soviet Union was taking Afghanistan. “The country seemed weak on the world stage,” said Southern Methodist University political science professor Matthew Wilson. “America had lost the war in Vietnam, had been rocked by the Watergate scandal, and had not seen a completed two-term presidency since Eisenhower. It was easy to feel that America had fallen from greatness.”(3). In 2016 Trump had seen something different in the country, and in the daily lives of its struggling citizens.(4). America was reeling in the 1980 when Reagan used his slogan and won, and the people found his tenure as President successful as he was re elected 4 years later. When older voters saw the slogan of Donald Trump the emotions felt during the delivered promises of the Reagan Presidency must have been reinforced or aroused and thus propelled the people to vote for him. Trump didn’t quite sweep the elections like Reagan did, but he won the Republican Primary with 13.3 million votes which was a record(1)

One of Trump’s campaign promises was to ban Muslims from entering America(5) was something that possibly appealed to the vulnerable state of mind of the American voter. Post the 9/11 attacks Islamophobia has increased in the USA. The fear was so big after those attacks that a Muslim was assumed to be a terrorist. People wearing a veil and growing beards were not considered Muslims but were considered terrorists, dangerous individuals whom the American people feared. Veiling was seen as an explicit sign of a Muslim identity, like the beard, has often been associated with terrorism.(6)

The Chapman University did a survey on Fears in America and one of the topics was Fear of Muslims in American Society. Some of the results were as follows 48.8%, report that they would not like a Mosque being built in their neighbourhood. 33.1%, say that Muslims are more likely to engage in terrorist activities. A similar number agree that the U.S. should halt all immigration from Muslim nations(These particular 33.1% people have gotten their wish as Donald Trump has banned travel from 7 Muslim majority nations)58.7% are of the opinion that Muslims should receive extra security screening at airports(7)

Such a perception of American towards Muslims indicates that they aren’t comfortable around Muslims and feel threatened when one is around them. Hence the message of Trump’s campaign where he continuously promised a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. created the symbols of Muslims and people were then taught to associate the emotion of satisfaction they would get when Muslims were banned and they could roam around freely and unthreatened should trump win the election.

The average state of mind of the people was vulnerable, families of soldiers were angry as their sons, fathers, husbands, brothers were being called to fight wars in faraway lands like Korea and Afghanistan. He has promised throughout his campaign that the troops will be bought home and America will not interfere in matters apart from their own in their own lands. This must have appealed to families of active soldiers as well as veterans and their families or families who have lost members in Afghanistan or Vietnam.

The New Jersey Governor Chris Christie created the symbol of Hilary Clinton as a criminal, listed her missteps and then asked the audience guilty or not guilty, to which the audience replied guilty. Then began the famous chant which fit in with the image of Clinton that Trump was trying to create(8). “Lock her up”, “Lock her up”. Trump at the Presidential Debate stated that she would be in jail if he ran the country. The symbol of Hilary was created and the emotion attached to it was that she was a criminal

Throughout the campaign people have seen Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump and viewed them as symbols. Specific emotions were attached to these symbols. Trump was the saviour who was here to Make America Great Again and Hilary Clinton was a criminal. The sight of the two at events led to people’s emotions getting aroused. When they saw Trump a saviour they chanted “Make America great again”. When they saw Hilary they saw a criminal and chanted “Lock her up.”

Laswell states that for every successful propagandist there were a hundred who failed, Donald Trump can be regarded as the successful propagandist who despite never ever holding elected office managed to appeal to the American voters and win the election. He successfully appealed to the vulnerable state of mind of the people, successfully created images in the minds of the people and over time associated emotions with images. This victory of Donald Trump shows that propaganda is still relevant in the present day and age if one knows how exactly to use it and cultivate images in the mind of the audiences.

 

 

 

References

1.  https://ballotpedia.org/Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign,_2016

2.  The Introduction of Mass Communication- Barron and Davis

3.   http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article90636182.html

4.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-came-up-with-make-america-great-again/2017/01/17/fb6acf5e-dbf7-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.8e6a129b88fc

5.  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37982000

6.  http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1149&context=honors

7.  https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2016/10/11/fear-of-muslims-in-american-society-2/

8.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/22/a-brief-history-of-the-lock-her-up-chant-as-it-looks-like-trump-might-not-even-try/?utm_term=.cc7567a3a31e