2010

LECTURE

JOHN BETTS

Jungian Interpretation of Images —
The Photography of Ansel Adams,
Robert Frank and Loretta Lux

In this lecture I am going to review a Jungian approach to the interpretation of images as well as a brief overview of the photograph as art. Understanding how Jung’s work has been used to interpret art (film, literature, pictures) is critical to our experience of images.

After reviewing the specifics of the techniques of image interpretation, I will introduce three very different photographic artists and their works. Ansell Adams is known for his advocacy of “straight photography” and lived and worked at a very dynamic period in the history of photography. His involvement with Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe and Weston resulted in images of landscapes of North America that we still refer to in our idealized notion of nature, particularly federal parkland.

Robert Frank, a Swiss émigré, completed a photo-essay in 1958 that resulted in a book called “The Americans”, adored in Europe yet panned by Americans at the time. Why was this so, and what can we understand through his images of ordinary post-War Americans?

Loretta Lux, a German photographer, produces unsettling photomontages of digitally altered children embedded in often austere or institutional background settings. (see image below). How can
we understand her art? What is the message she conveys to us about herself as artist, and her perception of the developmental stage of early childhood? This lecture will be of value to those interested in art, and clinicians who deal with the projective artwork of their clients.

Lecture: Feb. 5, 2010 7:30 – 9:45 PM
University of Victoria—David Strong Building, C116
Cost: Members $10 students $5 Non-members $15

John Betts, is a Zurich-trained Jungian Psychoanalyst. He maintains a private practice in Victoria, BC..

John produces a podcast on Analytical Psychology called the "Jung Podcast". He can be contacted through www.jungian.ca, or jbetts5@telus.