PART 4 - PROJECT 1 - RESEARCH POINT
I tried to use the link indicated by the study documentation, but it is no longer working. I then searched the document on google and found the pdf file at this address:
https://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Barthes-Rhetoric-of-the-image-ex.pdf
(accessed on 16/6/2019 6:25 pm)
I remember having deepened the study of anchorage and relay in Context & Narrative unit.
Roland Barthes associates anchorage and relay with denotation and connotation.
Denotation is essentially the mere meaning of the word, as we can find it in a vocabulary.
For example, the Spanish word "macho" means "male".
The connotation, on the other hand, is all that is associated with the word, and this association can be different according to the cultural base to which it refers.
The word "macho" in non-Mexican culture recalls the idea of the "real man", strong, rude, while in Mexican culture the "macho" is an impassive person, who "does not open himself" and does not show his emotions. This attitude is associated with the behavior of the male, while the female expresses her emotions and, by definition "opens up", in the typically Mexican masculine meaning.
Thus, the denotation of "macho" will always be "male" ", while the connotation will vary depending on the cultural origins of a spectator or reader.
The anchorage is a text that helps explain how we should read the image.
It has a directional function in that it directs us on how to read it and tries to exclude personal interpretation, as opposed to what is proposed by postmodernism; it acts reinforcing the perceived meaning.
In the image below, the text "Take what you need" explicitly directs the reader, provides him with "instructions for use" and urges him to collect the concepts he needs without any misunderstanding or second meaning.
Relay has a distinct relationship with the image and is a complement to meaning.
It provides the reader with additional, alternative meanings that could not be found in the image itself.
The relay brings something to the message because the information provided by the text cannot be deduced from the image alone.
The following image is taken from a governmental advertising campaign against global pollution: the text "We are killing our mother earth" plays on the relationship between "mother" and "earth", or even between "kill the mother" (matricide) and kill the earth, is the mother of all.
It also emphasizes the concept of involving everyone using the words "we" and "our". The text pushes us to extensive interpretations, playing with words, combinations and meanings.
It provides the reader with additional, alternative meanings that could not be found in the image itself.
The relay brings something to the message because the information provided by the text cannot be deduced from the image alone.
The following image is taken from a governmental advertising campaign against global pollution: the text "We are killing our mother earth" plays on the relationship between "mother" and "earth", or even between "kill the mother" (matricide) and kill the earth, is the mother of all.
It also emphasizes the concept of involving everyone using the words "we" and "our". The text pushes us to extensive interpretations, playing with words, combinations and meanings.
I spent most of my years of passion for photography focusing on pure image: this approach is confirmed by the fact that my personal website is titled Thepureimage.
Adding text to the image gives me the opportunity to explore new ways to express myself.
In the case of the use of the text with the function of relay, it disorients me, because it upsets my process of conception and creation of an image, interposing thought to the text that is supposed to accompany it, or better, integrate it.