Visual Analysis(pic will send to you via chat)
Keep your paragraphs short, but make sure you explain your rationale.
Do not exceed 500 words.
Here are the factors and perspectives, if you cannot open the worksheet:
Nine steps of visual analysis
1. Inventory list (grid)
2. Compositional elements: How do the parts contribute or distract from the picture as a whole? (Rule of thirds, lighting angles, camera angles, empty space, etc. Visual cues: How color, form, depth, movement interact and conflict. Does the light come from natural or artificial source?
3. Gestalt laws: similarity, proximity, continuation, common fate, closure, figure/ground.
4. Semiotic signs: What are any iconic, indexical and symbolic signs that can be identified in the image?
5. Semiotic codes: Do any of the metonymy, analogy, displaced or condensed codes contribute to your understanding this piece?
6. Cognitive elements: memory, projection, expectation, selectivity, habituation, salience, dissonance, culture, words
7. Purpose of the work. FOR THIS EXERCISE, NOTE WHICH OF THESE ASPECTS YOU THINK THE PHOTOGRAPHER WAS TRYING TO ILLUSTRATE:
Light, Shadow, Line, Shape, Form, Texture, Color, Size, Depth
8. Image aesthetics
Six perspectives (explained in detail in pgs. 135-45):
1. Personal: An initial reaction to the work based on your subjective opinions.
2. Historical: Determination of the importance based on the medium’s timeline.
3. Technical: Relationship between light, method used to produce the work, and context in which the work is shown.
4. Ethical: Moral and ethical responsibilities that the producer, subject and viewer have and share.
5. Cultural: Analysis of the metaphors and symbols used in the work that convey meaning within a particular society at a particular sign.
6.Critical: Issues that transcend a particular image and shape a reasoned personal reaction