Image Analysis E110: Critical Reading and Writing Ms. Bain February 4/2016 Material referenced from “Perspectives on Argument” 8 th Edition Nancy Wood and James Miller

Agenda Day 1: Seeing Images as arguments How to identify the argument Purposefulness on the part of the photographer/editor HOMEWORK: Find an article + image Day 2: How to “open your eyes” to see the image and all of its parts. Specific techniques used to establish meaning Depth, perspective, color, contrast, juxtaposition, etc. “Angle of attack” CLASSWORK: In groups, analyze the images individuals uploaded links to. HOMEWORK: Write a brief image analysis

Recognizing Visual Arguments Powerful images often have an intended effect on the reader. Photographs and images often present an argument to the viewer

Do all images present an argument? Not quite. In order to determine if an image does reflect an argument, ask yourself… Is this visual about an issue that has not been resolved? Does this issue potentially inspire two or more different views? What does the photographer want me to know or learn?

Visual argument can be… Straightforward with an obvious purpose and claim. Covert with a hidden claim that you may need to infer. Or Unconscious with the artist advocating a point of view without being fully aware of it.

Where do we find visual arguments?

Advertisements, photographs, drawings, illustrations, paintings, sculptures, cartoons, diagrams, and flowcharts. Various types of graphs, charts, visual demonstrations, tables of numbers, or even maps. Marketers use visual arguments on websites, billboards, signs, and packaging. and other materials such as brochures, posters, etc.

Eight Special Features of Convincing Images 1. Visual argument is immediate and tangible and pulls the reader into the picture 2. Visual argument often establishes common ground and invites the viewer identification through shared values and points of view 3. Visual argument often evokes an emotional response 4. Visual argument often relies on the juxtaposition of materials from very different categories, inviting the view to make new links and associations

Visual argument is immediate and tangible and pulls the reader into the picture Visuals communicate fast and evoke rich, dense and immediate response from a viewer. Your immediate reaction or feeling is what is important. Recalls your familiarity or associations with the content of the visual. Often, images are used to draw in READERS.

Visual argument is immediate and tangible and pulls the reader into the picture. Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner 1989

Visual argument often establishes common ground through shared values and points of view Emphasizes personal identification with the characters, the action, or the scene. In the next image, Dorothy Counts is being escorted to her first day at a newly desegregated school in Do you identify with Dorothy as she moves towards her first experiences in her new school? Do you identify with the crowd behind her? What values are embedded in this image?

Attitudes and values have changed radically in the years since this photograph was taken. The picture illustrates the potential power and influence of a visual argument. It memorializes an event that has now become a part of history that illustrates how dramatically views on school segregation have changed.

Visual argument often evokes an emotional response Images more directly convey emotions than written argument because images are more immediate.

Visual arguments rely on juxtaposition In placing objects, people, or actions that are not usually associated with each other in common context, a photographer invites the view to establish new connections and associations

Flower Power

Visual argument employs symbols Commonly held icons with established meanings and feelings add to the associations with the image. Viewers look beyond the literal meanings to come to a greater understanding of the visual’s significance.

Visual argument is selective Not only what is IN the image, but what is MISSING. What is IN focus, and what is OUT of focus. Sometimes this includes the use of editing or cropping.*

Argument invites the interpretations from viewers “When viewers, like readers, draw on their backgrounds to fill out the meaning of a visual argument, they become vested in its message since some of the meaning now belongs to them” This is the idea of showing something controversial simply because it draws attention from multiple perspectives.

How Do I Construct an Image Analysis? Use several strategies and questioning techniques to determine what you feel is the ARGUMENT being presented Take notes of what features of the image makes you infer that argument Identify the rhetorical devices in the images Presented in your textbook. Chapter 8 pages Analyze where the image is published and what purpose it serves. Usually the image will reflect the same position as the accompanying article.

Homework Find a news, magazine or journal article that has an interesting pair of Image and Text Paste the link to Schoology under “image assignment” Next class, your group will tackle this image and use today’s strategies to analyze the purpose of the image Read Chapter 8 from your textbook.