Analyzing Visual Images
by Susan Morse
At first it looked like a blank white canvas to me. I saw no shapes, no contrasting colors. Then my friend, the art historian, suggested I engage the visual text by changing my vantage point and moving slowly from one side of the art work to the other, observing the vitality created by the varied brush strokes and the visual rhythm of the white paint interacting with the light. He told me that this is an abstract work of art that doesn”t portray objects in the natural world; rather, it is a production that challenges traditional forms of representation, focusing on color and texture as intrinsic qualities of the artwork that trigger the viewer’s imagination.
Our interaction with each other as well as with the visual text underscores our dialogue as members of a visual culture, where images mediate meaning between individuals in a particular community as well as between a viewer and “those aspects of culture that are manifested in visual form -- paintings, prints, photographs, film, television, video, advertisements, news images, and science images” (Sturken 4). In Humanities Core, we seek to critically read those images by interpreting how their form motivates these modes of interaction. The purpose of this chapter is to offer you a basic vocabulary and a method for practicing visual analysis.
Semiotics and the Study of Sign Systems
Interacting with images is nothing new. As members of a thriving visual culture we communicate and find meaning through the production, interpretation and consumption of visual media and signs, which can depict a literal object or represent an abstract concept. The strategies and implications of attaching meaning to signs and sign systems comprise the study of semiotics. A basic understanding of semiotics is an important component of visual culture because it unlocks a discourse about how the production and consumption of visual imagery are tempered by historical and cultural contexts.
Upon looking at a representation of a tree, for example, one might initially recognize this object as a sign of the literal object one encounters in nature, with roots, a trunk, and outspread branches. At the same time, however, a tree can be read as a sign that possesses a deeper level of meaning for a particular community located in time and space. A genealogist might think of a tree as symbolic of a family’s history, whereas an environmentalist would see it as a renewable resource that symbolizes the promise of fresh air. Therefore, when working with an image it is not only important to consider the literal representation of the objects on paper, canvas, or computer screen; it is equally valuable to study the culture and time during which the image was produced and viewed.
Applying such historical context to an analysis of the visual text unlocks potential symbolic meaning as it enhances our understanding of a culture that existed in a specific time and place. During this quarter, for example, we will analyze the proliferating images that mediate the Civil War, from etchings and paintings to advertisements and photographs. Without any background information about each of the images, you might arrive at false conclusions about their meaning or the meaning of the culture in which they were produced. Even a little historical context can help you understand the events that contributed to the production of images or to the application of images to mediate a series of events. It allows you, in other words, to understand the historical contingencies, or influencing factors, that shape meaning in a particular moment. As part of understanding the historical contexts in which an image was produced, you will want to consider the context in which a visual object is displayed. For example, does the image appear as a masthead for Harper’s Weekly or The Liberator? In what contexts were those periodicals published (What was their purpose? For whom were they written? How were they circulated? Etc.)? Or does the image appear within a collection in a museum? Is it a public or private work? Part of a collection or a singular work? Set alongside print or standing alone? It is important for us to consider how the audience’s understanding of an image depends upon how the image is displayed, because the interaction between viewer and image becomes part of the mediating or signifying power of that piece.
Medium, Genre and the Disciplinary Function
Beyond applying elements of the historical context to finding meaning in an image there are other equally important strategies to keep in mind. Identifying the medium and genre of an image provides us with information about different kinds of visual objects in terms of where we can expect to find them, how widely they are distributed, and how they function. The medium describes the substance or materials used in a creative production. Materials like oil, charcoal, and clay lead to productions in the categories, or genres, of painting, drawing, and sculpture. These are original, one-of-a-kind items that may enjoy a special status as valuable and historical museum pieces or be prized as part of a private collection. Less expensive images found in the form of photographs, prints, advertisements and newspapers are reproducible and circulate more widely within and beyond a population.
We might be tempted to conclude from this information that an original work of art, because of its value and singular status, is more important or more worth preserving than a photograph printed in an old newspaper produced at the same time. This is a claim that a historian might counter argue with the assertion that an old newspaper image, as another primary source, contributes valuable cultural and historical information to our understanding of a past culture that the work of art might not provide. An artist painting a battle scene may alter or omit the gruesome specifics of war to convey an abstract message like heroism or victory. A photograph of the same battle scene may capture the bloody chaos of war and thus “picture” that event quite differently. An additional strategy for reading an image is to consider how a particular discipline (history, literature, art) impacts the way an image as a primary source or artifact or work of art is treated. As a strategy, read the image like a text. Try to identify a theme or recurring motif in the image or evaluate how the form of the image relates to the themes it articulates.
Keep in mind that a sign, although often in visual form, can also occur as written language and may occur as part of a visual representation. For the more popular and reproducible representations like posters and advertisements that include language, it is important to reflect on the interaction between the visual and written components. Does the language evoke an image different from that reflected in the poster or ad, and if so, what might this contradiction signify? The symbols D-O-G in a dog food advertisement will probably trigger a visual referent of that concrete object that will more or less resemble a four-legged animal that barks. However, a more abstract word such as W-R-O-N-G in a movie poster might call up a variety of images and meanings across a spectrum of viewers. A study of sign systems reminds us that the society and culture in which we live impacts the meanings ascribed to the signs we encounter, another reason why having a historical context can inform our interpretation of foreign or past cultures.
Analysis of Composition
Whether or not we have already established the historical context or have identified the conventions of an image’s genre, we should conduct an analysis of the text’s composition as a means of identifying key elements and generating questions for interpretation. Begin by studying the image carefully and repeatedly. After you have spent some time looking at the image as a whole you might start the interpretive process by breaking the visual text into parts and attending to one section at a time. As you move from one part to the next, think about how the elements and objects from one portion of the image relate to and interact with components in the other sections. Using this strategy, you might find deeper levels of meaning in the visual text.
Then ask yourself what the separate formal elements in the image might communicate. Elements such as color, light/dark contrast, perspective and spatial organization of objects might impact the mood or inform our interpretation of the image. How does the image create a visual path, or line, which directs attention to a specific focal point or moves one’s line of sight from one point in the image to another? Light and dark contrasts in an image may direct this movement, as could the repetition of color. Or the movement may be more literally guided by the illusion of depth (e.g., in a path that becomes increasingly narrower as it moves from the foreground of the image to the background). Recalling my experience with the abstract oil painting in white, the interplay between the light and the brush stroke texture produced a tactile illusion that directed my line of sight up and down across the canvas in a steady rhythmic pattern as if simulating the steady passage of time and reminding me of my own mortality. That sequencing led me to interpret the canvas as performing the ways in which audiences shape the meaning of texts (not always vice versa) and in which patterning is central to semantics.
Observations about compositional components like perspective, scale and the spatial arrangement of objects may also impact our reading of visual texts. Have you ever looked at an image and noticed that some of the objects are much bigger or smaller than they should be in comparison to other objects? What interpretive conclusions might we draw about a culture if human beings in a landscape painting are depicted as much larger in scale than the natural components? It might signify for the viewer an attitude of human supremacy or dominance over the natural world. By the same token, an image where objects are arranged on either side with nothing in between might trigger the interpretation that a gap exists. These are fairly obvious conclusions to reach. Our challenge as members of the visual culture is to make connections that move beyond the unmistakable and search for a deeper meaning in the signs around us. Understanding the signs requires that we consider how historical contingencies -- social, cultural, political and other factors operating in a particular time and place -- mediate or shape meaning in the images we analyze. We must interrogate how images actively negotiate and influence meaning not only between viewer and object but also between individuals in a particular community.
Work Cited
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.