12d Analyze the text.

When you feel that you understand the meaning of the text, move on to your analysis. You may want to begin the process by asking additional questions about the text.

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Go to the Thinking Visually exercise to analyze this image.

ANALYZING IDEAS AND EXAMPLES

ANALYZING FOR OVERALL IMPRESSION

Visual Texts

TALKING THE TALK

“How can an image be a text?” In its traditional sense, a text involves words on paper. But we spend at least as much time reading and analyzing images—including moving images—as we spend on printed words. So it makes sense to broaden the definition of “text” to include anything that sends a message. That’s why images, ads, videos, films, and the like are often called visual texts.

Sample analysis of a text

Following is a Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph (by Craig F. Walker of the Denver Post) and its caption. This image appeared as part of a series documenting the experiences of a Colorado teenager, Ian Fisher, who joined the U.S. Army to fight in Iraq.

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During a weekend home from his first assignment at Fort Carson, Colorado, Ian walked through a Denver-area mall with his new girlfriend, Kayla Spitzlberger, on December 15, 2007, and asked whether she wanted to go ring shopping. She was excited, but working out the financing made him nervous. They picked out the engagement ring in about five minutes, but Ian wouldn’t officially propose until Christmas Day in front of her family. The couple had met in freshman math class but never really dated until now. She wrote to him during basic training and decided to give Ian a chance. The engagement would end before Valentine’s Day.

A student’s analysis of this photograph made the following points:

The couple are in the center of the photo—and at the center of our attention. But at this moment of choosing an engagement ring, they do not look “engaged” with each other. Kayla looks excited but uncertain, as if she knows that Ian feels doubts, but she hopes he will change his mind. She is looking right at him, with her body leaning toward him but her head leaning away: she looks very tentative. Ian is looking away from Kayla, and the expression on his face suggests that he’s already having second thoughts about the expense of the ring (we see his wallet on the counter by his elbow) and perhaps even about asking Kayla to marry him. The accompanying caption helps us interpret the image, telling us about the couple’s brief history together and noting that the engagement will last less than two months after this moment. But the message comes through pretty clearly without words.

Ian and Kayla look as if they’re trying on roles in this photograph. She looks ready to take the plunge, and he is resisting. These attitudes conform to stereotypical gender roles for a man and woman considering marriage (or going shopping, for that matter). The woman is expected to want the marriage and the ring; the man knows that he shouldn’t show too much enthusiasm about weddings and shopping. It’s hard for the reader to tell whether Ian and Kayla really feel that they are making good or careful choices for their situation at this moment or whether they’re just doing what they think they’re supposed to do under the circumstances.

The reader also can’t tell how the presence of the photographer, Craig F. Walker, affected the couple’s actions. The photo is part of a series of images documenting Ian Fisher’s life after joining the military, so Walker had probably spent a lot of time with Ian before this photo was taken. Did Ian want to give a particular impression of himself on this day? Were he and Kayla trying on “adult” roles in this situation? Were they feeling pressure to produce a memorable moment for the camera? And what was Walker thinking when he accompanied them to the mall and took this photograph? Did he foresee the end of their engagement when he captured this revealing moment? What was his agenda?