Text and Image.
Sometimes when you look at an images, you might establish a certain idea of it’s message or what it’s about, but when text is added the context can be completely changed. The power of adding text to images is deliberately used in art, advertisement and other creative fields all the time.
Take for example, Marion Pecks’s 2006 collection “I Cari Estiniti” or “The Dearly Departed”. If you just saw the paintings on their own, they would be soft portraits of cute doe-eyed children, but under each painting a small piece of text was placed, stating each child’s name and the years of their lifespan. Suddenly the gallery becomes like a graveyard and the children have souls, and we think of how sad it is that they died, some very young, and what lives they could have led.
Take for example, Marion Pecks’s 2006 collection “I Cari Estiniti” or “The Dearly Departed”. If you just saw the paintings on their own, they would be soft portraits of cute doe-eyed children, but under each painting a small piece of text was placed, stating each child’s name and the years of their lifespan. Suddenly the gallery becomes like a graveyard and the children have souls, and we think of how sad it is that they died, some very young, and what lives they could have led.
Images in context to evoke emotion.
It is important to know what source or media an image comes from and is used for, for this can greatly change it's meaning as well. We get a different sense of what is behing the images based on where we see it.
Carrying on the theme of dying young, these images from Sophia Coppola's film "The Virgin suicides help illustrate my point. Below we see Ceclia, the youngest sister, sitting in a tree. If this photograph was hanging in a gallery it might give the impression of an innocent young girl wistfully thinking about life and being at peace. However, in the movie, viewers know that this is the ghost or memory of Cecelia lingering around her family home after taking her own life. When watching it in that context, it takes on a much more eerie and melancholy tone.
Next, a grainy snapshot of her older sister Lux. If this were placed, for example, in a news report, it might seem to be the unsettling image of how a murdered girls body was found, or perhaps the last picture taken of her when she was alive. In fact, in this scene from the film, Lux is awekening to the seedy light of dawn after losing her virginity. Much less haunting, the image retains a raw, tangible quality but has shifted meanings.
Next, a grainy snapshot of her older sister Lux. If this were placed, for example, in a news report, it might seem to be the unsettling image of how a murdered girls body was found, or perhaps the last picture taken of her when she was alive. In fact, in this scene from the film, Lux is awekening to the seedy light of dawn after losing her virginity. Much less haunting, the image retains a raw, tangible quality but has shifted meanings.
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