WEEK 4 - Visual Language

Sight = trust, power through flirting, eye contact, visual reassurance. We loose power when we can not see as we don't have the power to look at something or make someone look at us and we are unable to look away.
We also judge people on how they look, for example politicians employ people to make them look trustworthy and powerful. So the way they dress and physically conduct themselves communicates to us visually.

The camera has long been used to create visual compositions to portray meaning, they can be used to show heightened and fleeting moments.  A photographer who did this was 'WeeGee' Arthur Fellig.

Weegee got his name because he was always the first to a scene with his camera. This enabled him to capture the moments in time that nobody else was. Weegee would photograph murder scenes or any form of disaster like in the images above. He would capture moments in time that could communicate to the viewer the feeling or experience of that moment whether it be kids playing on the street or a building ablaze. His photography captured true moments in urban society between 1930's and 40's.

Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirty with a white woman. A few days later the womans husband and his half brother took Emmett to a barn where they beat him and gouged out one of his eye's before shooting the boy. His body was then thrown in the river found three days later. Emmett's mother insisted on a public open casket funeral to show the world the brutality of the murder. Tens of thousands attended the funeral and the image taken of his casket shown bellow was published in newspapers and magazines. This murder is considered a major contributor to inspiring the African-American Civil Rights Movement. 

Publicising the images of his mutilated body in the casket brought power to the situation. Words can not describe what these images communicate.

Robert Frank

This image titled 'Trolley' by Robert Frank makes a statement it is not simply an image of individuals travelling on public transport, the image has social, cultural and historical meaning behind it. It portrays the culture of the time in which black and white people were forbidden to mix together. This is shown through the image showing the black and white sectioning off on public transport. The coloured section was always at the back communicating there important at this time in society. Robert Frank has illustrated and summed up a period in culture though one image just using visual communication. 

Rosemary Laing

Rosemary explores conceptually based photography as seen above. She is another example of a photographer who uses an image to visually communicate an idea very effectively.