VISUAL RHETORICMs. Boehm AP Language February 5, 2015

1. Individually-- write down the context of this photograph and the significance of this photograph

2. Together-- Share your ideas with a partner.

3. Class discussion-- Be prepared to discuss the context and significance of the photo

What is visual analysis?• In a visual analysis, your job is to break down the

different elements of a text that communicates primarily with visuals. Your goal is to understand how these different elements communicate a message and accomplish a purpose.

• Visual texts include things you see everyday, such as:

• Websites• Photos or paintings • Brochures or flyers • Advertisements

Visual vs. Verbal AnalysisAnalyzing visual texts is both similar to and different from analyzing verbal texts:

•In both cases, you consider the text’s rhetorical situation, which is made up of its audience, purpose, and context (or circumstances).•In both cases, you think about how the text’s elements communicate for that audience, purpose, and context. •But, in visual text, you focus primarily on visual elements instead of verbal.

Visual Analysis: The Process

As with all writing, there is no one process that will work for everyone when it comes to analyzing a visual text. As you develop your ideas for a visual analysis, you might find it useful to follow three general steps:

1. Describe2. Respond3. Analyze

Describe the TextMany people overlook this step, but simply describing a visual text is an important part of the process. Trying to analyze a visual text without being able to first describe it would be like trying to analyze an article without being able to first summarize it.

When you describe a visual text, you might look at: • Colors and shading• Objects and shapes • People and places• Arrangement of elements on page • Foreground and background

Respond to the TextA good visual analysis will go beyond basic reaction, but thinking about how you react to a visual text can be useful in developing your ideas.

When you look at a visual text, think about:

• What’s my initial, gut reaction?• How does the text make me feel?• What does the text make me think?• Does the text make we want to do something?• Does the text remind me of anything I’ve seen, heard, or read about

before?

Analyze the Text

In the next step, push beyond description and response. Consider how the text’s different elements communicate a message and accomplish a purpose.

Remember the rhetorical situation: The audience, purpose, and context of the visual text.

Analyze the TextTo think about how the text communicates a message to its reader, ask questions about each element you described. For each element, ask:

What is its purpose?

What is its effect on the audience?

How does it contribute to the text’s message?

How does it relate to the context?

Objects and Shapes• Geometric vs. organic shapes

• Geometric: shapes found in math (circle, square, triangle)• Organic: shapes found in nature (tree, leaves)

• Abstract• An image that emphasizes elements (line, shape, etc.) rather than

specific, recognizable objects

• Balance and symmetry• Asymmetry can create tension and uneasiness, balance might

imply harmony

• Juxtaposition• Comparison of visuals to one another or comparison of objects

within the photograph

People and Places

• Figures• People in the frame, what they look like, and what that

communicates

• Subject• The main object or person(s) in a photograph

Arrangement of Elements• Foreground vs. background

• Foreground: the front of the scene or picture• This is usually the most important part of the visual

• Background: the back of the scene or picture

• Focus• What areas appear to be clearest or sharpest? Which do not?

• Perspective vs. Point of View• Perspective: How close the subject is to the viewer• Point of view: The position from which the visual is viewed

• Framing• What’s in the frame of the visual, and what lies beyond it?

Arrangement of Elements

• Space• Depth or shallow? Negative space and positive space?

• Theme• A unifying or dominant idea in one work of art or in a

collection of works

• Repetition• Objects, shapes, or lines in a pattern

Colors and Shading• Light

• Highlighted areas, shadows• Time of day• Harsh or soft light

• Texture• Harsh, soft?

• Contrast• Strong visual differences between light and dark, varying textures,

sizes, etc.

• Color• What feelings do colors evoke?

Imagery in The Scarlet Letter• Color, light, and shadows • Over 400 times

But what’s the

purpose?

Color Connotation

What does the color red mean to you?

What does the color red mean in The Scarlet Letter?

Red• The “A”• Scarlet vs. red?

"On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold-thread, appeared the letter A." (Chapter 2, Page 40)

"“Pearl?—Ruby, rather!—or Coral!—or Red Rose, at the very least, judging from thy hue!” responded the old minister, putting forth his hand in a vain attempt to pat little Pearl on the cheek." (Chapter 8, Page 83)

"...but the latter played him false, and flickered over his visage so derisively that the spectator could see his blackness all the better for it. Ever and anon, too, there came a glare of red light out of his eyes; as if the old man’s soul were on fire..." (Chapter 14, Page 130)

Color Connotation

What does the color black mean to you?

What does the color black mean in The Scarlet Letter?

Black (Used over 90 times!!!)"Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison."(Chapter 1, Page 35)

"I have sought, I say, to persuade this godly youth, that he should deal with you, here in the face of heaven, and before these wise and upright rulers, and in hearing of all the people, as toughing the vileness and blackness of your sin." (Chapter 3, Page 49)

"More than once, he had cleared his throat, and drawn in the long, deep, and tremulous breath, which, when sent forth again, would come burdened with the black secret of his soul." (Chapter 11, Page 110)

"The same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long years, and foot-worn, too, with the tread of many culprits who had since ascended it, remained standing beneath the balcony of the meeting-house." (Chapter 12, Page 113)

"Hester looked steadily into her little face; but, though there was that singular expression which she had so often remarked in her black eyes, she could not satisfy herself whether Pearl really attached any meaning to the symbol." (Chapter 14, Page 136)

Color Connotation

What does the color green mean to you?

What does the color green mean in The Scarlet Letter?

Green• The forest

"It seemed to argue so wide a diffusion of her shame, that all nature knew of it; it could have caused her no deeper pang had the leaves of the trees whispered the dark story among themselves..." (Chapter 5, Page 64)

“As the last touch to her mermaid’s garb, Pearl took some eel-grass and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s. A letter– the letter A– but freshly green instead of scarlet.” (Chapter 15, Page 136)

Color Connotation

What does the color gold mean to you?

What does the color gold mean in The Scarlet Letter?

Light/Sunshine/Gold"She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its existence, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison." (Chapter 2)

“And as for the scarlet letter, I wear it for the sake of its gold thread.” (Chapter 15, Page 138)

"Did the sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon him? Or was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity, whichever way he turned himself?" (Chapter 15)

Color Connotation

What does the color white mean to you?

What does the color white mean in The Scarlet Letter?

White• Pearl and the color white...

"Not as a name expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white, unimpassioned lustre that would be indicated by the comparison. but she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price." (Chapter 6, Page 67)

SIX WORD STORIES

Group 1

McCurry, Steve. Afghan Girl. 1984.

Group 2 Joshi, Shivji. Desert Crossing, Rajasthan, India. 2011.

Group 3 Jet, Huynh. Hats Off. 2014.

Group 4 Allard, William. Life in Costa Rica. 2009.

Group 5 Rosen, Valerie. Waiting to Pay. 2012.

Group 6 Cobb, Jodi. Bedouin Woman. 1987.

Group 7

Lange, Dorothea. Migrant Mother. 1936.