Close Analysis of Visual Texts Discussion of an

Close Analysis of Visual Texts

Discussion of an Image How meanings are conveyed through the use of visual conventions

Visual Conventions Texts convey meanings by employing visual conventions Visual convention = the association of a visual element with an idea

Visual Elements in Images Objects Places

People • Appearance (physical) • Bodily orientation • Clothing • Expression • Gaze • Gestures • Posture • Proximity and touch

Construction • Composition – centring, foregrounding vs marginalisation, backgrounding

Construction • Camera angle • Camera distance (framing) • Leading lines • Lighting and colour

Rule of Thirds

Levels of Meaning: Reading Images for Ideology • Images convey ideas about the overt content • Images convey ideas on the ideological level

• Overt content – specific people, places events • General ideas underlying overt content – issues, themes: representations

A way of thinking about reading for representation and ideology If we were to accept some element of a text as normal of its kind, what conclusions would we draw? 12

Men 13

Women 14

Families 15

Not Just Groups Places e. g. Western Australia 16

War 17

Heroism 18

Reading for representation sometimes takes time and requires practice 19

Images, Ideology and Representation Images can reflect and reinforce dominant ideologies by representing groups in the same way over and over again i. e. by associating certain ideas with the group through the repeated use of visual elements with accepted meanings

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Images can challenge or subvert dominant ideologies by representing groups in new ways i. e. by transgressing the accepted conventions of representation by associating certain ideas with the group through the use of visual elements (and therefore ideas) not normally associated with the group

Images can reinforce and challenge or subvert dominant ideologies at the same time

Context Whether images reinforce or challenges dominant ideologies depends on context – i. e. the ideologies of the society in which it is read

Still from the American film Fight Club, 1999. Explain how visual conventions are used to convey ideas in this text.