Essay Help-Visual analysis

Essay Help-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:

žLight, žShadow, Line, Shape, Form, Texture, Color, Size, žDept

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