Image and Text (ITAP 9)

In visual communication it is very important to look at text as well as image. Text and image can relate to each other in various ways. Adding text can make the image more readable and easier to understand, however adding text can also add confusion and thought like René Magritte’s “This is not a pipe”.

Text can be a powerful tool which can change the meaning and understanding of an image. Another factor which can change the meaning of an image, is the place where the image is placed. An english person who can not speak or read french would only look at Magritte’s painting and admire the skill of the painting. It is only when the text is translated to english that the puzzlement starts. 

Where would you find the photograph of the house above? In an estate agents, ready to be sold to a loving family? Or stuck on a wall at a police station as a crime scene? Each place makes you look at the image differently. When at an estate agents, i notice that the photography is quiet bright, with the house painted in a lime green. The photograph must have been taken on a fairly sunny day. However when i think of the image in a police station, i notice the brown bordered up windows and doors. Then my eye catches the tilted .... above the front bordered up door. 

The amount of image you can see can also change its meaning. Where and how much the image has been cropped. For example, the photograph above has been cropped. Here it just looks like profile portraits of a woman. On the left hand side, she look sad with her head tilted down and the expression on her face. Its not until you see the full image below, that you realise that the photograph is actually a mug shot. Where as before you thought she was just a normal woman, now we are wondering what crime she had committed. 

An image combined with another can also change and create a very strong message. Peter Kennard created this image titled “Blairaq” in 2006. It is a controversial image which was used in may newspapers. Without the background the image is innocent with Tony Blair taking a photograph of himself. However by adding the background the new image is very powerful and holds a strong controversial opinion about Tony Blair. 

“We wanted to mark Blair’s last week in office with a graphic attack on him,” Peter told Socialist Worker”

“In many ways the act of producing and showing the work is a cathartic process, one by which you get out all the frustration that you feel about the war, and Britain’s role in it.” http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12201

Similar to Peter Kennard, Alison jackson has also used photomontage in her controversial work. This Image of Prince Philip at an art gallery has been turned into a humorous piece just by changing the images Prince Philip is admiring. Most of Jackson’s recent work is based on celebrity culture and creating believable photographs. Her work is very comical.