Semiotics

This is  a major approach to analyzing and interpreting images.  It is useful not only for viewing images, but for thinking about how people will view the images that we make.

Nöth, Winfried.  Visual semiotics: key features and an application to picture ads.  In:  Margolis, Eric, and Luc Pauwels. 2011. The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. Dropbox.

Rose, Gillian (2001). Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials.  London: Sage. Chapter 5: Semiology. pp. 74-106.   Dropbox.

van Leeuwen, Theo (2001).  Semiotics and Inconography.  In van Leeuwen, Theo, and Carey Jewitt, eds. Handbook of visual analysis.  London: SAGE. pp. 92-118.  Dropbox.  This covers much the same ground as Rose, but not exactly.  Some may find one or the other of these readings more useful.

Optional

Barthes, R. (2003). Rhetoric of the image. In L. Wells (Ed.), The photography reader. London: Routledge.  (Not my scan) A classic. Here’s one of many postings of the image he writes about.

Also optional – revisit: Barthes, R., 2003 [1984]. Extracts from Camera Lucida. in: Wells, L., (Ed.), The Photography Reader. Routledge, London, 19-30. Better scan now in Dropbox.

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