Understanding Images and Results of the Theory

Roland Barthes- Rhetoric of the Image.

I have to confess on first reading Rhetoric of the Image, I couldn’t but feel overwhelmed. It was as though Barthes was speaking a different language, so many complicated and confusing words. However I believe the purpose of this text is to challenge us to think more about images and the linguistic nature.  The text goes on to discuss three types of messages; linguistic message, coded iconic message and non-coded iconic message.

Firstly Barthes looks at an advertisement for Panzani Pasta and other ingredients. He suggests that on looking at the image we will be able to receive a message straight away. The gist of the message is linguistic, meaning that because of the text in the image were are able to draw some conclusions of what the advertisement is for. Barthes suggests that both the caption for the advert along with the product label can further help decipher the image. The language that the caption is written in and also some of the text on the label is French. This is known as a denotational linguistic message. The name of the brand, Panzani, is Italian and this portrays the product as also being Italian. This is known as a connotational linguistic message. Taking away the linguistics of the advertisement we are simply left with the image. Again the image immediately provides the viewer with signs and ideas of the product. The idea of the overflowing shopping bag suggests the produce is fresh and ready to be eaten; also the colours that are use refer back to the ‘Italianicity’ of the product. However the designer of the advertisement when making decisions about text and image needed to decide if he/she wanted the image to reinforce the text or if they wanted the image to also give more messages. The functions of the linguistic message regarding the iconic message appear to be ‘anchorage’ and ‘relay’.

‘Anchorage’ appears to be the most common function found in the linguistic message usually in press photos and adverts. Anchorage is in place to help the viewer relate to and understand the image. The text and image ‘directs the reader through the signifieds of the image causing him to avoid some and receive others’. Thus it would suggest that the designer can put in place specific messages that he/she wants the viewer to understand.

‘Relay’ can most commonly found in cartoons, this is where there are only a small number of images and without the text the images are hard for the reader to understand. Therefore by inserting the text into the cartoon the reader can quickly decipher what is happening in the story.

Barthes suggests that advertisements although may appear to be natural in placement are in fact structured in such a way as to convey particular messages. This is known as the coded iconic message. In reference to the ‘Panzani’ image the colours the designer has chosen in their ‘still life’ represent the culture and the Italianicity of the product. This coded message along with others affirms the solidity of the produce. A non-coded iconic message is more simply about the image itself it is purely a visual thing that does not contain any hidden symbols or messages.

It is also suggested by Barthes that drawings cannot be decoded as no matter who draws there is always going to be a personal style influencing the viewer. A photograph however is impartial as no matter who takes the photograph the image will remain the same. ‘... the photograph is never experienced as illusion ....it’s reality that of the having-been-there’ this is similar to the saying ‘a camera never lies’ This means that although a photograph may be staged to convey particular messages, the viewer may take many different meanings away from it. It also enables us to understand that text aids readers to understand the image that they are looking at.

My results working with Barthes Theory

Although the concepts that Barthes suggests are quite difficult to understand I found the idea of underlying hidden messages quite interesting, as I am intruiged to know how people try to manipulate others. However with the images that I chose for my assignments below I discoverd that sometimes people can still have completely different ideas about what they see, no matter how much information is given. I tried to get people to take away the idea that the innocent gorilla has been caged up and it really would like to escape to paradise. Although most people eventually ‘saw’ this story, others still chose to leave elements of the story out altogether or add in new elements that were not apparent in any of the images. I feel that perhaps the images I chose or possibly the words that I added were maybe too difficult to understand or maybe did not convey the message well enough. I found these assignments particularly interesting and this is something I would like to investigate further.

Say what you see! Part 4

Although the insertion in part 3 of the word INNOCENT into my images has got people thinking the same way about one aspect of the story, people still appear to be having some difficulty relating to one of the other images. For this reason I have chosen to insert a second word, this time the word is ESCAPE.

Images sources from: www.sxc.hu 

Caroline

20

Student

1 Brother, 1 Sister

Like many animals in the world, there was a gorilla which was held in captivity in a zoo. It longed to break free and escape so it could live in paradise like it is supposed to.

Charles
20
Student
1 Brother, 1 Sister

The innocent gorilla escapes and travels across a beach where he meets a family of gorillas. They all escape together and travel to the beautiful side of the island.

Craig
28
Project Manager
2 Brothers

The gorilla represents all of the innocent animals that are locked in captivity, they should be freed so that they can live in the wild where the belong.

Jonathan
19
Student
1 Brother

When escaping abroad to a tropical island the last thing you expect to see is an innocent monkey caged up for view.

Lee
51
Postgraduate Office
2 Sisters

The innocent gorilla does not know why it is held in captivity, it dreams of escaping to its own personal paradise.

Meghan
18
Student
1 Sister

The innocent gorilla tried to escape to paradise.

It would appear that most people have managed to get the ideas of the gorilla being an innocent animal and also that it does not want to be there, it would prefer to be somewhere else. If I was to continue the research further I would possibly try adding different words or extra photographs. I found this a challenging but interesting assignment and as discussed above I am particularly interested in hidden messages.

Say what you see! Part 3

Unfortunately part 2 did not really help in trying to get people closer to seeing the same story as each other. I decided to take away the fourth image of the angel and chose instead to add a word to one of my previous images. Hopefully this will start to get people thinking along the same lines. The three images below have remained the same and once again I have asked people to say what they see. The added word is: INNOCENT

Images sourced from: www.sxc.hu

Emma

19
Student
1 Sister

The innocent monkey was found caged up and stranded on a desert island, by holiday makers.

Iain
23
Sound & AV Technician
2 Brothers

The innocent gorilla is trapped in a cage where it does not belong. It should be in the forest where it originates.

Jenn
22
Student/Nurse
1 Brother, 1 Sister

The innocent monkey that was caged up has escaped back into the wild.

Karen
21
Student
2 Brothers, 2 Sisters

On holiday in Jamaica I spent a lot of time on the sandy beaches. One of the beaches had a zoo nearby where I saw many animals. My favourite was the apes, although I would much rather see them in the open.

Pip
22
Shop Supervisor
1 Sister

Innocent animals are being caged in and should be free in the wild.

Tam
74
Retired
2 Brothers

People thought the gorilla was dangerous and had damaged their beautiful island so they caged it up even thought it was innocent.

Lin
20
Student
Only child

A long time ago, the world had beautiful scenery and environments, however more and more people polluted the earth. This means more and more animals can’t live in their natural homes. It is such a beautiful place to have left because of pollution.

Say what you see! Part 2

After looking at the stories from part 1 below I decided to add a fourth image, this was to see if this fourth image would influence people into thinking or seeing the same stories as others have seen. Again I asked people to give me a story of what they see. So sticking with my 3 previous images I added the image below.

Image sourced from: www.sxc.hu

Charlotte

19

Student

1 Sister

An angelic gorilla went abroad to go to the seaside.

Helen

20

Student

1 Sister

The gorilla was trapped. Everyone thought he was dangerous, but inside he was innocent and angelic. He just wanted to escape and return back to his home, where it was warm and beautiful, instead of being stuck where the only similar thing was the water and beach.

Jane

22 ¼

Optical Assistant

1 Brother

A gorilla is looked after by a guardian angel and the angel leads the gorilla to escape to a better land.

Kat

19

Student

1 Brother, 1 Sister

Man is trapped and wants to escape in a spiritual and religious sense in order to find peace and tranquillity.

Maria

23

Beauty Therapist

2 Sisters

A nice gorilla escapes to a better place where he is not trapped, just like before he was captured.

Mike

45

Music Teacher

1 Brother, 1 Sister

The angelic statue looks so forlorn, like the animals that are caged up feel so lost and alone. They want to escape to a better place. Maybe animals and humans really want the same things.

Paula

51

Nurse

3 Brothers, 2 Sisters

On a trip to Florence we went round the museums then to the zoo where the gorillas were kept in cages. There was a group trying to help release the gorillas back into the natural habitat.

Unfortunately this image did not do as I had intended. I had hoped people would look at the sculpted angel and take a mannerism from it. Instead some people have managed to add in a religious element to the story. This is perhaps something I should have preempted beforehand, however this just goes to prove that people see things differently.

Say what you see!

The idea of this experiment was to try and understand how people interpret images and also if there is anyway in which you can influence people so they all "see" the same thing. First I chose 3 images at random and gave them to people to interpret, I asked there asge occupation, if they have any siblings and asked them to make up a story or say what they see. Below are the images I chose and also some of the stories I got back.

All images sourced from : www.sxc.hu

Emilie

19 ¼

Student

1 Sister

Gorilla/Human. Human dreams of getting away to a beautiful beach. It is a dream of a rainbow coloured, empty beach where he can be alone and in peace.

Fiona

19

Student

1 Brother, 1 Sister

There is a feeling of being trapped with a need to escape to paradise away from destruction.

Joanna

22

Musical Theatre Tutor

1 Brother

A gorilla escapes to a better land, just like King Kong!

Kirsty

19

Student

1 Sister

We were on holiday abroad- it was summer and really hot. We went to the zoo and saw the gorillas. The zoo was on the top of a mountain and we looked down and saw the beach with the beautiful blue water. We decided to go down towards it but unfortunately it wasn’t as nice as we thought.

Mike

50

Engineer

3 Brothers

On arriving on the North Beach I thought it looked like an ex-prison, but then I saw some caged gorillas left in what looked like a disaster area. I realised something must have happened recently. I sailed around to the next cove which looked Idyllic.

Rachel

19

Student

1 Brother

The story is about breaking free to a more exotic place. It is like being trapped and wanting to escape to paradise.

Sarah

20

Student

1 Brother, 1 Sister

A gorilla escapes from his cage and damages everything to get to a faraway place. A nicer place that he remembers.

Reactions

After analysing photographs of Ross’ house (see post below) we discussed our findings with each other to assess whether or not we actually could tell things about each other without knowing each other.

Ross’ reactions to my analysis.

It was quite a strange experience sitting there telling someone else who you think they are. However with Ross it appears I was quite close to being spot on e.g. things such as Ross having strong family values and opinions. I asked Ross if his CD’s were ordered somehow and he informed me they were, Alphabetically by artist and then year of release. This confirmed my understanding that Ross was well organised and like to proud of his belongings. As I mentioned that I pictured Ross’ room to always be clean he told me that it goes in cycles, sometimes it is spotless and then gradually becomes untidy until it is unbearable, then tidy again. This surprised me as the generally I got the impression that the whole family were keen to keep everything really clean.

I thought the reason Ross’ room was red reflected his strong opinions and values and this was something that he had not really thought about. Ross said that he chose to paint his room red because it was different to the blue that was underneath, but he did agree that perhaps there were some underlying reasons such as those I put across. It was interesting to note that Ross was a big collector of all things Star Wars when he was younger, obviously as there is only one obvious piece of memorabilia it was quite hard to interpret. It turns out the framed clips were a gift from his girlfriend, who knew that he liked Star Wars as a child.

I told Ross that I thought his family liked to welcome people into their house and that first impressions were important to them, he confirmed this to be true and told me that first impressions generally reflect what people think of the rest of the house. The biggest difference was the plates in the entranceway, I suggested that these were military and had some connection to the past. However it turns out to be a collection of John Wayne memorabilia plates that his family have collected over the years. I asked if there was a reason for this and Ross informed me that they were important as they were a reminder of his late Grandfather, who had a passion for John Wayne films.

My reactions to Ross’ analysis.

At first I was apprehensive as to what I was going to hear. Would I be told some underlying issue that I had never thought of? Overall Ross analysis of me was also very close to the truth. Ross’ could tell that my family were close not only with the immediate family but also with the extended family. I was slightly taken aback when Ross told me that my parents tended to spend money on me and my two brothers rather than themselves or the house. This is almost identical to what my parents say “we spent all of our money on you three and we just made do for us and the house.” It was a bit spooky when Ross asked if my Dad, an Engineer, was some kind of tradesman or worked with his hand. Ross told me that he thought my Dad was quite well built and that was the indication of working in a trade. Characteristics of me that Ross managed to pick up on from my photos were that as a child I was slightly clumsy, outgoing and quite funny. He could tell that I was comfortable being with adults from a young age, something I had never really thought about, and that my family and I like spending time in the outdoors.

It was peculiar listening to somebody else tell you about yourself, however I did enjoy it as it reminded me of the fun times my family and I used to have when were all together camping or on holiday. Unfortunately this is something that never really happens that often as we have all grown up and some moved away from home I think we are all a bit more used to the creature comforts ad the heat of a holiday in Greece rather that a camping trip to Pitlochry.

This process was quite hard to get a grasp of but as I got into it I found it a more enjoyable experience. As I looked into the Johari Window, I discovered that some of what is mentioned in that is reflected into the analysis that Ross and I did of each other. There was not much that either of us did not really know about ourselves but small things such as the underlying reasons for Ross choosing red or my relationship with adults. Other than those couple of this generally we were telling each other things that we both knew and could relate with. Overall the exercise was challenging as I felt there was a need to be very careful of how you put your findings across to the other person. I was very cautious of offending Ross, or said something that he found inappropriate. It is difficult analysing someone when you do not know as you are wary of mentioning things such as family in case the family home has been separated or someone has passed away. In that way I fell we maybe hold back on saying things exactly as we see it. Perhaps this is true with lots of research, in the time that we live in everyone is particularly careful to not upset or offend others. Therfore I can only assume that not all research is completely honest.

Analysing Ross

At first on analysing photographs of someone I have never really spoken to I felt a little awkward, the thought of getting something wrong or even offending the other person was a daunting prospect.


I swapped photographs with Ross D, (same name just a coincidence), a graphics student.

Throughout all of the photos of Ross’ house that I analysed there were noticeable similarities between rooms however each room has a purpose.

In the bedroom generally everything appears to be excruciatingly organised, although there are some things lying out on the desk all else appears to have a place. It is as thought these things left on the desk are simply waiting there to be put away, they are no permanent artefact's. The desk in the room is in the main uncluttered but there are a couple of things such as a Sporran, sketchbook, tissues, sweets and a couple of DVD’s lying on the top. A Sporran would suggest that Ross has been wearing a kilt to a dressy occasion such as a wedding, party, or more informally to a football match? Whichever it is this represents pride in one’s heritage, he is proud to be Scottish and happy to show this pride by dressing in kilt and all the regalia that goes with it. The couple of DVD’s that are not in the correct place would suggest that they have been left out deliberately for some reason or that they are waiting to be put away. It is noticeable that the CD’s and DVD’s have a specific place; I find it unusual that Ross would deliberately leave these out. Perhaps a family member has put them in the room and rather than disturb the space just left them on the table.


The furniture in the bedroom all matches, the desk, CD holder, shelf and even the CD player blends in with most things in the room. This would suggest that Ross is an organised person who pays attention to detail. I would imagine that this room would have been decorated with Ross input, also the furniture would probably have been bought as a rather than over a period of time. The bold red colour chosen for the main wall in the bedroom suggests that Ross is headstrong and sure of his views and opinions. I would suggest that the red is dramatic and possibly overbearing perhaps this is not a Room that he spends a lot of time in. The two main pieces of furniture in the room are a bed and desk, this suggests that the room is really only used for sleeping and study.

There does not appear to be a lot in the way of personal decorations on the walls, perhaps this is an indication that this is someplace that Ross does not feel settled or a place where he does not use often. The Star Wars framed film clips on the wall next to the bed is almost out of place in this setting as it does not really tier in with the rest of the room. It was perhaps given as a gift from a relative or friend who once heard that Ross liked Star Wars. It may be hung on the wall more out of politeness rather than genuine appeal. Along the top of the headboard we have the pink, fluffy fairy lights, this tells me that there is a female influence in Ross’ life and I do not think they belong to him but are more likely to belong to a girlfriend. This suggests that Ross is comfortable sharing his space with someone he cares for.

There are a lot of CD’s on the wall which suggests, Ross enjoys listening to Music, the fact that they are on show would indicate that he does not mind other people seeing what kind of music he likes. I wonder if the CD’s are ordered in some way, alphabetical perhaps. Like the rest of the room the CD’s are arranged neatly and organised a trait which appears throughout the whole room. I suggest that although the room is very organised and ordered that this may not necessarily reflect true to life, perhaps Ross does not use this room often and that is why it remains orderly.

Looking at what I think may be the entrance to the family house I notice that there is a small doll’s house at the entrance; this is quite a quaint possession to have at the front door. Although inviting you to have a look inside, it is also fun which indicates that this family like to have fun and very much see themselves as a family. I am not sure if this would also suggest living in a “wee world” of their own? At the other end of the entrance way the small teddy bear lying on the floor is quite comical, this may also represent the families humour but it could also act as a conversation point for new visitors or old friends and family. I can imagine that this was maybe a childhood toy from a parent or even grandparent or was perhaps a souvenir from a holiday.

The military plates that decorate the walls are suggest there is a military background to the family, whether Army, Naval or Air force. Like Ross’ room the plates are a collectable thing and I think are on display because they mean a lot to the family. The clean bright colour of the entrance way suggests that the family like people to feel welcome when they enter the house, again the plates appear ordered and the space is not cluttered allowing people to breath and relax. As the entrance way is the first and last place people will enter I think it is deliberately arranged to give people a good impression.

The living area is really the family area in the house. On the wall there are a number of photos of the children at school and other family members, this would suggest that they are a close family unit. In the display cabinet there is the family silver and glassware suggesting a pride in their belongings. The glassware may have been passed down from generation or gifted to the family on special occasions but great importance is put on this as it takes pride of place in the room. There is a jigsaw on the floor of the room implying that somebody uses this room as a hobby room when it is not being used by the family. This could also perhaps be something that members of the family like to do together.

Overall I get the feeling that family is of most importance to Ross. Everything in the photos is clean tidy, orderly and personal to the family; this is because the family are proud of what they have. It is evident that the Ross has been brought up with strong family values and he wants to make his family proud of him.