ITAP Week 9 Image and Text

The meaning of an image can be affected my what context the image is shown such as the series of four photographs by John Hilliard called ‘Cause of Death?’ These four photographs show the same person lying down in the same place but, by John Hilliard altering the image by cropping it down in four different ways and by him then adding text to the pictures simply saying the cause of death, in this case he used burned, crushed, drowned and fell, he is able to change the meaning and narrative of the photographs. Another example of how adding text to a photograph can change the meaning of the image is the work that Gillian Wearing does with her photography. In her work she gets people to write down what they are feeling or thinking at the time and then pose with it while she takes a picture. For example she has taken a photo of a policeman holding a sign saying ‘help’ and what appears to be a businessman holding a sign saying ‘I’m desperate.’ By having these signs in the photographs of what the person is thinking written down on them changes the meaning and the story of the image, such as what does the policeman need help with? and why is the businessman desperate? This creates a contrast between what the person is thinking to how the public sees them by the way they act and dress. Jim Goldberg is another photographer that uses what the people he photographs thinks and feels in his work. Particularly in his series called ‘Rich and Poor’ where he takes photos of both the rich and poor then gets them to write down what they either think of the people around them or the place they are in etc. This has similar results as Gillian Wearing work, but demonstrates how linking an image with text as well as the way it is laid out can change the meaning of the piece.