Create a storyboard where the image does not depend on the text and the text adds something new to the narrative.

This exercise is a light-hearted look at the role of image and text. Aim for it to be around 10 frames long. Draw the picture storyboard first and then add the text. Note how the story is affected when the text is added.

Storyboard Without Text

Storyboard with Captions

Learning

As the exercise says, it is a lighthearted story and the sketches illustrate why I am doing a photography course rather than a drawing one! However, even with the light hearted story, there is learning.

• Having to think how to tell the story without text does mean, even with simple sketches, that one puts thought into what objects are shown in the image. This is enhanced further by the fact one has to actually draw then rather than just capture what is in a scene. This generates two observations:
  • When capturing even a single image, particularly a constructed one, there is value in thinking about what should and should not be in the image ahead of capturing the image itself. This could be sketching it in ones mind or actually on a piece of paper.
  • With some thought, and effort in the capture, it may be possible to get enough information or symbology into the image to avoid the need for descriptive text. Again, doing this before constructing the image could be of value. My sketch of the garden centre, I did eventually conclude that I needed to add text into the image to show that the scene was a shop rather than my own greenhouse – but I did spend some time thinking about this.
• When it came to adding captions, it felt like a relief, that I no longer had to rely on the image alone. This is an emotion worth remembering, if I unconsciously did that with photographs, there is a risk that I would put less effort into the construction of the image itself.

Over the space of a few weeks gather newspapers that you can cut up, preferably including a mixture of different political points of view. Have a look through and cut out some images without their captions. You could choose advertising images or news.

For each image, write three or four different captions that enable you to bend the image to different and conflicting points of view.

Selection Process

As this exercise is being carried out during the 2020 COVID lockdown, I have sourced my images from an online version of the The Times. To avoid any form of selection bias, I chose the first five images in the paper that contained scenes rather than a close up portrait of a person. I chose to select the image of Boris Johnson notwithstanding my criteria as I felt his expression was interesting.

Images

All images obtained from The Times newspaper. 6th May 2020. Copyright as shown in non-cropped images as shown at bottom of this post.

Fancy Dress Shop opens in local town

Armed Forces get closer to local community to help in COVID crisis

Armed Forces exploit empty retail spaces to reduce MODs need for barracks

British military man airport exits to enforce quarantine rules for new arrivals

New Irn Bru formula puts traditionalists in outrage

Search for Coronovirus vaccine continues

Scientists arrive in China to investigate virus source

Blood Plasma may be beneficial for COVID patients in critical care

Protective Equipment is in shortage even in laboratories

Toss and Spear the pancake, a new form of cooking

New home intruder self defence rules come into force today

Olympians face an extra year of games preparations, from home

Self inflicted injuries rise as public look for ways to ease lockdown boredom

Boris faces tough questions as he returns to press conferences

Boris looking tired after his new father duties keep him up all night

The weight of how to ease lockdown takes its toll on Boris

Boris reflects on the importance of getting Brexit done in the New Normal

Social distancing enforced by greenhouses in local restaurant

Climate change puts outside dining at risk

Concern over privacy as diners put on display

Learning

Some reflection on this exercise:

• One image showing something remotely connected to a theme can be repurposed to mean almost anything about that theme. The scientists in the lab is, in the newspaper, about the search for a COVID vaccine. But I came up with many different interpretations, still related to COVOID. This is down to the polysemic nature of the images but this observation shows how I could send a viewer in a certain direction even with a very tenuous link between the text and the image
• It was easy to invent humorous captions for the same images. Thinking of the same image, I really was struck by the fact that the liquid looks like Irn Bru. I felt like it was slightly wrong to make light of such a serious topic to the world at the moment but the learning is one can use text to completely change the interpretation of an image, this is going a lot further than my first observation where I was suggesting different interpretations, but still related to the same core subject.
• Text can close down an image if one is not careful. The fact that one can invent different captions emphasises the multiple interpretations possible, but this is the power of an image, one needs to be careful not to destroy that. Any one of my captions could cause the viewer to lock in on a certain view. For the image with greenhouses, I accidentally read the newspaper’s caption before trying to invent my own. I found that this made it a lot harder to think of other captions than it was for any of the others.

Original Images and Captions

Choose a day that you can spend out and about looking with no particular agenda. Be conscious of how images and texts are presented to you in the real world – on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, and online, for example. Make notes in your learning log on some specific examples and reflect upon what impact the text has on how you read the overall message.

Results

This exercise falls at a time when I am in social isolation for COVID-19 and so cannot leave the house. Not ideal for the exercise and so I decided to pick up some random magazines from our collection and choose some random advertisements from within them. I have described two that had a big impact on me here.

Majestic Trees

Fig 1 shows an advert for Majestic Trees, a retailer of trees.

The image itself shows an old tree set in some open gardens with what looks like a large Manor House behind it. The primary text states “It’s not just a tree. It’s a legacy”.

I feel that the image evokes feelings of countryside, traditional gardens, feelings of summer (although the tree is not in leaf). It could be a shot taken in many many large country house grounds. It is not overtly about the tree.

The text is split into two sentences. The first “It’s not just a tree” is in smaller font to the second but, because it comes first, it is what I read first. The text for me is anchorage, it makes me realise that this is an advert about trees. The tree in the image does not appear to be the subject of it, one might expect it to be the house, but with this text, I am now thinking mostly about the tree and not about the house, it has controlled me.

The second sentence “It’s a legacy” is, I think, relay text. The overall image is one of tradition but it is not an interpretation that I think I would get to without the text. So the text is not making me zero in, it is making me think about the image differently. Now that I have done that, I return to the tree in the image. To tree in the image is, I think, an oak tree and it was that is probably a hundred years old. These are trees that often symbolise Britishness and grounding.

The advert is in the magazine called “The English Garden”. I don’t know, but I would guess that the average reader is 40+. Nearly every forty year old or more starts to care about their legacy. So suddenly, advert which is actually about selling trees has become all about leaving a legacy, the image takes on a totally different meaning. The starts to imagine the legacy that they could leave and forgets that they probably don’t have a garden or house anything like the size of that shown in the image.

The way that I have described the feelings above is how they affect me. I have actually been thinking about planting a tree, but it was for ornamental purposes, perhaps a magnolia or a cherry tree. This advert has successfully manipulated my thoughts onto something totally different in a surprising way because the manipulation itself has got nothing to do with trees at all!

Ashbridge Partners

This advert is taken from Cotswold Life and is an advert for a company that deals with bridging loans, see Fig. 2

The main image in the advert shows a very idyllic large county house that sets onto what appears to be a river. The text states “Don’t lose the home of your dreams”.

From the image itself, we cannot tell what the purpose of it is. It could be a property advert for that specific house, to it could just be a shot from within a Cotswold village; both of these scenarios are visible in many images in the magazine.

The text implies that if you don’t do something, and we don’t know what that is yet, then we could lose the home of our dreams. Specifically, we don’t know if this refers to a future house, or the house that we are trying to buy, or even the house that we live in already, which could conceivably be the home of our dreams. So this advert potentially applies to every viewer.

I think this is clever, we are forced to read the rest of the advert to see that it is about. Even then, the rest of text does not make it overtly clear, one cannot simply glance at the rest of the page to find out, one has to study it in detail. By the end, I have discovered that the advert is for bridging loans, I don’t need one of those but if I ever do, I will likely remember that I read about them in this advert, whereas I may not have if the advert had overtly been about the loan as I would have simply passed over it.

The text in the image has made me read the advert, more than the image itself. It gave the image a different meaning and so I think that this text is relay text.

Learning

When Barthes discussed anchoridge versus relay text, his conclusion was that text was most likely used to control the viewer and how they look at (or ignore) specific parts of an image.

In the two examples above, the text that has had the biggest impact upon me is relay text. These are the two adverts that I chose after looking through around 20 magazines and so to me that suggests that relay text can have a very big impact on the viewer.

I think in both cases, the text has effectively made me think about the images in a different context, they are not just nice landscape scenes, they are symbols of things that might be valuable to me in my life. It is what that symbol represents, and is evoked by the test, that has more impact upon me than any direct, non interpreted elements within the images themselves.

For me this is a useful technique that I could use to help encourage users to think about my images in different ways than the literal image put before them. It’s a bit like the provocative question that nearly all TED talks start with when they question a fact that the listens thought was unquestionable.

I read Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image (Barthes, 1964) in which he uses the image of an advertisement for Italian food ingredients, but used within France, to illustrate his concepts (see Fig 1.)

The overarching thrust of his paper (which is written in his usual style and means that it takes considerable concentration to follow) is that of how the image, and any supporting text can be used to influence the viewer’s interpretation of that image; this is possible given the premise that all images are polysemic in nature.

Much of his text is targeted at the symbology used within the image itself than the text. For example, the use of a shopping bag half open in the image portrays a return from the market.

Thinking specifically of the textual elements, Barthes defines two core concepts: that of anchorage and that of relay.

Anchorage “may be ideological and indeed this is its principal function; the text directs the reader through the signifieds of the image, causing him to avoid some and receive others; by means of an often subtle dispatching, it remote-controls him towards a meaning chosen in advance.” (ibid.). Which is to say that the text is controlling the viewer’s interpretation of the image, perhaps removing the possibility that the viewer might interpret the image, given it polysemic nature, in some manner that the creator of the image did not intend.

For example, in Figure 1, there is much in the image to portray the Italian nature of the product even though the advert is in french, the colour schemes, the brand name of the product etc. However, the image itself showing basic produce and a string shopping bag is somewhat rustic in nature. This is no doubt intentional, it implies an authenticity to the food in my view but it does not imply any kind of quality. The text in the image “a l’italienne de luxe” translates to Luxury Italian and so elevates the authentic rustic Italian orientated food to one of quality, of exclusivity. Without this, then why not simply go to the market and buy the basic products as the images shows them? This certainly would not be the intent of the advertiser and it is this elevation to a luxury item that means it is necessary to buy the product itself.

In summary, anchorage is a form of control to direct the viewer to notice some things and interpret them in a certain way, whilst also causing the viewer to ignore other items or interpretations. Anchorage can only work by highlighting aspects of the image, it cannot add something new. Barthes states that because of this, it is very efficient, it is not necessary for it describe any new concept, merely to, subtly, direct the viewer in a certain direction.

Relay on the other hand co-exists with the image, it adds something new. The viewer switches between the text and the image and each causes the viewer to interpret the other in a different way. As each is required to introduce a new meaning, it requires more effort, it is less subtle, the viewer learnings something new from both and is aware of this fact as they do so. Barthes gives cartoons as a prime example (for fixed images) where the picture and the text work together. Typically the image would set the scene, a speech bubble would give the satirical commentary so that the viewer would understand the joke, and then the viewer would return to the image itself noticing subtle details that reinforce the humorous interpretation of the image.

Examples

Coca Cola – Anchorage

In Fig. 2 below we can see an advertisement for Coca Cola. Most of the imagery, other than the bottle itself, looks to be a portrayal of nature, the countryside and farming. Clearly this is designed to leave the viewer feeling that Coca Cola itself is a natural product just like the scene show. When I think about how the image makes me feel, it would be one of healthiness. Obviously, this is far from the case on all counts; it is a heavily processed product containing huge amounts of sugar.

But this is the image itself. The text “Open a Coke, Open Happiness” is somewhat out of place with the imagery; unless healthiness equates to happiness of course. Whilst that is a possible interpretation and maybe the one that is most at face value, I also think there is a clue from other coke adverts. Most coke adverts have a theme of playing together, having fun together, sharing, singing to together (‘if I could teach the world to sing’ features in many TV adverts and they even put lyrics on bottles in one campaign). But this element is missing from this specific advert. I wonder if the text is intended to have the viewer interpret this advert from within the context of what we already know of coke, the play aspect, does it remind us that we can have the happy playful side, and the healthy natural side all in one product?

Having the viewer interpret the image in this way is anchorage.

Cartoon in Sunday Times – Relay

This cartoon is written at the time of COVID-19 and an ongoing debate in the UK as to wether face masks should be worn by the public. The World Health Organisation says that they should, whilst British scientists and the government says not. It is also a time when the UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has had a baby – a popular event perhaps made even more popular by the fact that he himself has just escaped death after contracting COVID-19 and being in intensive care.

The image if glanced as shows Boris Johnson (the UK Prime Minister at this time) at a changing mat changing a baby’s nappy. Nothing funny about that.

The speech bubbles “I’m changing my advice … face masks do have a positive effect” is relay text. The reader now knows that the cartoon is to do with face masks and the ongoing public debate about wether to wear them or not. Returning to the image, the viewer then might notice the portray of the smelly nappy and the odour coming from it. It is also then that the viewer (or at least I) spot that Boris is wearing a face mask.

Without the relay text, the viewer might have spotted the PM changing the baby, they may have spotted the odour from the nappy, and they have spotted the mask. That might have been humorous, but they may not have realised that the cartoon is not really about that at all, it is about the PM’s decision on advice to the public re face masks and COVID-19. The real topic is not funny, but the combination of the image and text makes it funny alongside getting across its real meaning. As per Barthes’ description, one cannot infer one without the other.

How might this help my own creative approach

Since studying the module Context and Narrative, I have struggled with the concept that all images are polysemic in nature. I find it hard to think past what I intend the viewer to think, my own personal need to control what the viewer sees and how they should interpret the image.

This anxiety of mine has tended to mean that my images leave less space for the viewer to fill than they might otherwise, and this in turn could mean that the viewer spends less time looking at my image. My assignment 5 for context and narrative saw a big change between my draft submission and the final submission as I worked to take out information from the image. My tutor eventually did say though that after looking longer at my original image he found more to think about, but the point is I had added too much and therefore he didn’t.

The original and final images are shown below in Fig X and Y

I think that anchorage text could aid or assist me here. I think that by using it well, then I could have more confidence to leave things out of the image and instead use subtle direction with the text. I am very conscious that this could go very wrong – I could end up with the worst of both worlds, too much in the image and then excessively controlling text to back it up even further which then would leave the viewer with nothing to reflect on at all.

Or maybe relay text could be used to prompt the viewer to think outside my image. Perhaps for Fig. 4, the caption could be “A traditional English tea” and trigger the viewer to study all of the different aspects of the image and to discount that it is simply a family portrait.

My Fig. 5 aimed to do that by zooming in on the pertinent parts of the image, perhaps Fig. 4 and a caption would achieve the same effect without needing to remove so much of the rest of the image.

Bibliography

Barthes, R., 1964. Rhetoric Of The Image. [online] Theory.theasintheas.org. Available at: http://theory.theasintheas.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Barthes_Rhetoric_image_Image_Music_Text.pdf [Accessed 3 May 2020].

Figures

Figure 1. Panzani, n.d. Panzani Advertisement. [image] Available at: https://tracesofthereal.com/2009/12/21/the-rhetoric-of-the-image-roland-barthes-1977/ [Accessed 3 May 2020].

Figure 2. Coca Cola, n.d. Coca Cola Advertisement. [image] Available at: https://blog.printsome.com/coca-cola-marketing/ [Accessed 3 May 2020].

Figure 3. Sunday Time, 2020. [image] Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/morten-morland-vs33mqw8v?shareToken=5df20e39607e52b9e464863956e09b5c [Accessed 3 May 2020].

The initial part of the analysis focuses on the subheading to the advert “New power tools for men”, which he points out position the products not as cosmetic products but as tools. This is manifest in the words themselves but I must confess that until reading this assessment, had not actually occurred to me.

Woolley talks of this linkage with work being a technique used since 2008. I can just remember the type of adverts that existed before this, Old Spice and Brut 55 would be examples. In those types of advert (and I cannot remember any text from them) tended to portray a lifestyle choice, old spice focussed on a surfer for example.

What had not occurred to me was the shift in selling technique from one of lifestyle to one of utility. And yet, all aspects of this advert support Woolley’s assessment, the words on the page, but also the look of the products, their angular style, the scrubber does look like some kind of sanding tool.

The mail part of the text “There’s a science to looking good” seems to me to add an air of sophistication. If the tools aspect are aimed at the working class, then perhaps the headline aims to elevate the products into something towards the higher end of professions, the scientific, the higher-brow. Between the two titles they have covered off the two tiers of male working pursuits and I feel that they have done this without drawing any attention to the gap that might lie between them in terms of wealth or power.

With reference to the course, the text and the image are, I feel, orientation in nature, that is they are intended to achieve the same thing, to invoke the same thoughts and emotions. There is no gap between them for the viewer to fill in.

Bibliography

Woolley, D., 2016. Looking At Adverts: 15. [online] Oca.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/looking-adverts-15/?cn-reloaded=1 [Accessed 27 April 2020].

Figures

Figure 1. Clinique, 2016. There’S A Science To Looking Good. [image] Available at: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/looking-adverts-15/?cn-reloaded=1 [Accessed 27 April 2020].