Some of the main points I got from this section are:
- The economy of looking is an exchange of power
- The context of an image has much to say about the way it is interpreted
- Societal and cultural ideologies have a major influence on the meaning we derive from images
- Value is added to an image on a personal basis and it is individual experiences that give value
After taking sexuality in the cinema last year and reading a lot of Foucault, I am really interested in looking as an economic exchange of power.
It was really interesting that right after this class on Tuesday I went to my Media and American Politics class and was given a lecture on typographic communication vs. graphic communication. My professor's argument was pretty much that typographic is of a higher status than graphic. He said, "A photograph can only speak to particulars. You can take a picture of a man but you can't take a picture of mankind. You can take a picture of a tree but you can't take a picture of nature. Through pictures we have lost the ability to discuss abstractions." I think he should have sat in on our discussion of chapter one. I think almost every picture speaks to a universal message or abstraction. You can find great ideas in even the most specific of pictures. I will admit that as someone who would like to pursue journalism, I would choose print over broadcast because of my love for printed words, but I do not think that an argument can be made to say that you cannot visualize abstract ideas. It just takes a trained eye and a critical mind.
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