This paper builds on the skills developed in the writing exercises to combine a visual
description and analysis with a consideration of context in understanding the meaning a
photograph communicates. You may choose any
...
This paper builds on the skills developed in the writing exercises to combine a visual
description and analysis with a consideration of context in understanding the meaning a
photograph communicates. You may choose any advertising, journalistic, art, or vernacular
photograph to discuss within a specific context. You may not choose any photograph you
have written about before. Do not choose an image from a book.
Format: 7 pages of text (no more, no less), typed and double-spaced. 11 point font and 1”
margins all around. Feb 28th at 11:30pm in the Assignments folder – also upload a digital
copy of the photograph you wrote about with your paper. You will have to photograph the
object with your cell phone and turn it in with your paper.If you do not include the
photograph, you will receive a 0.
Goals of the paper:
1. To articulate a close, thoughtful, and detailed analysis of the visual aspects of a
particular image. There are two parts to this discussion: visual description and visual
analysis.This will combine discussion of subject matter with analysis of the photographic
technique (compositing, balance, angle, lighting, perspective use of color, etc). This will be
your longest, most thorough, and closest exercise in looking yet.
2. To clearly and thoughtfully explain the context of the image—where it is seen (for
example, publication, venue or location in which you encounter the photograph and its effect
on how you understand the photograph) who the audience is, and how the image circulates—
and the impact of this context on the meaning of the image.
3. To clearly and thoughtfully explain how a photograph is circulated: is it published in a
book? (what kind of book?) A popular magazine? (who are the readers?) An art magazine? Is
it printed on a card to trade amongst friends? Is it painstakingly printed and hung in a
gallery? How, in short, is the photograph used and put into circulation… and how does the
meaning of the image change as it circulates in these different forms?
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