Let's do this

I guess I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and describe an image according to the new chapters. Kudos to whoever started this trend, because it really is helpful.

I am not using a newly shot picture (not because I don't have any, but rather because I'd like to discuss the new images in class or in another post). So for now, y'all will have to live with something out of my library.
Also, on top of last week being the seemingly longest week of my graduate career, I managed to never get my blog posted. So instead of lately posting a blog that none of you will read, I'll just start off with a quick recap of last weeks chapters before delving into the new material.

chapter 4:

• This image would be considered an offer because the main represented participant is not looking at the viewer, making the image seem very impersonal.
• It is shot in a medium range distance to allow some of the background information to be included without a central perspective.
  
• The vanishing point is at an oblique angle causing the viewer to feel as though, "what you see here is not part of our world, it is their world, something we are not involved with" (p 136)
• This image is shot at a higher angle implying that the viewer has a sense of power.
• It is amazing how K&vL get so many of the elements right in this image. The higher angle implies a sense that the viewer has power over the detached and vulnerable participant. I feel that this is shot at a meduim distance, which implies that this image is a 'social' image. I don't know that I completely agree with that statement. Nothing about this image says social. The participant is nude, face down in the bathtub. This is obviously a personal moment, never intended to be the next social gathering. I don't know, maybe I just misunderstand this theory but I don't feel this image would have been as successful from a farther distance giving a 'stranger' association.

chapter 5:
Modality Strikes Again!

1. Color Saturation: This image has a rather low modality due to the small amount of color (although much of the image is blue, the other half of the image is still overly black)
2. Color Differentiation: Still has a low modality rating because there is a low diversity of color
3. Color Modulation: I'm not sure where the image would fall in this category. It's really blue? So, would that make it a medium modality?
4. Contextualization: The steam in the bathroom caused the lens to fog up in turn making the background start to disappear. Adding the fact that the background (and much of the foreground) is a white bathtub, this causes the image to have a lower modality.
5. Representation: There is a higher modality in this category because you can still tell that there is a figure in the foreground.
6. Depth: Again due to the lens fog, there is little modality because there is an absence of depth.
7. Illumination: I'm assuming that the lightest images get the highest modality, so this image gets a high modality mark because so much of the image is lit.
8. Brightness: There is a high variety of tones in the mid-tone and shadows of the image, but the highlight areas lack a sense of absolute detail, causing the modality to fall.

• After considering all the standards for modality, I believe this image would qualify as a lower modality image. I know that doesn't instantly categorize this as a bad picture, but somehow I still feel as though it is less of an image after all the criteria are considered.

Now, on to the new stuff!

chapter 6
Salient: the most eye-catching element (p 176)

• In my image, this would be the figure in the bottom center of the frame.

"Composition...relates the representational and interactive meanings of the image to each other through three interrelated systems": information value, salience, framing (p 177)

• There is little in this image to give information value, simply a shower curtain and the lines of the tub. Although there is little to look at, the strong lines create a sense of framing by directing the viewer's gaze through the picture starting at the salient, guiding the eye up and left to the curtain, the curvilinear lines direct the gaze downward to the line across the bottom half of the bathtub which then meets the hand to start the gaze cycle again.

I want to take a few minutes to discuss how different social groups approach design and page layout according to new and given. On page 183, Kress and van Leeuwen discuss how page layouts differ between different social groups. Below I have broken down two magazine spreads from publications with extremely different audiences and social groups. The first comes from a Spanish publication called Trash discussing art made from, you guessed it, trash. The second image is a special publication from Time magazine on the life of Ted Kennedy. Trash's audience is younger, and stylish or trendy. Time's audience is political (in the very traditional sense) and it's readers are usually more established conservative people. So let's look at the highlighted sections and the differences between the two.

#1 New: the right element in a polarized composition; also the new information being presented.

• I'm going to start with the bottom example first. Look at how simple and conservative this layout is. The new is plainly stated as text on the right hand side of the page. The headline "Ted" is the new information along with the body copy accompanying it.
• Image number 1, however, has an image as it's new component, but I feel it also has an ideal element as well with the top image.

#3 (sorry this is out of order, but I diagrammed the images first and afterward decided I needed to discuss new and given at the same time, so hang in there, I'll make sense of everything in the end) Given: the left element in a polarized composition; also the understood information.

• As similar to #1, the elements are reversed between the two examples: Trash has text as it's given whereas Time has an image of Ted's face as the given.

#2 Connection/Disconnection: the degree to which and element is visually joined to another element.

• The second spread is a good example of connection. The new and given elements are visually joined by having no white space between them as well as the image (not that you can tell because of my color coding, but trust me on this one) is monochromatic tying it to the black page on the right.
• The first image is a little confusing to me, but the vectors are really apparent. On this image, marked by the yellow elements, are a series of vector lines that divide the article into many different sections. These visual physical vectors make me believe this is a connection (going by the definition listed on page 210), but really they seem to create more of a disconnection by knifing up the page into many distinct sections combined with the vectors ending in arrows that lead the viewer off the page or onto the former/next one. Any comments?

Whew! This officially should win the award for world's longest post. I'm actually really excited about class tomorrow (seeing as I'm posting this late Wednesday night) and all the photography y'all have been taking. I gotta admit, I'm a little intimidated by all your photo skills...