That Image Assignment

Despite the fact that the class's reactions to my pictures made me want to change some of the things I wrote in my explaination, I'll post what I typed up before class anyway.

Punctum - Originally when I saw this image it seemed very posed, as if each of the guys was showing off to the camera. The denotative interpretation of the image led me to believe that it was supposed to be very manly, however, it looked comical to me. Somehow I just couldn’t see a very manly image in the way the men posed for the camera around the bike, so I decided to make the center person, who seems to be trying to hardest to look cool, into something I don’t think he would have liked at all. I did this by adding the two little hearts light on his cheekbone as he turns towards the camera. I think this mocks the original intention of the photo and makes the men seem girl – gender bending as Sturken and Cartwright would say. Originally I didn’t want to crop the photo, because the heart shows up best when the picture is its original size, and you can see all of the men’s bikes. I was forced to crop it and resize it a little to meet size limitations for the project.

Leaflet - I would drop this flyer on the horse meat processing plants in Texas (one of the pictures is actually from a rescue facility near a plant). I wanted the little girl on the front to represent the cuteness that I see in the horses and ponies being slaughtered (hint, hint, symbol). The picture on the back is actual documentation of a real pony that was rescued and is being cared for, but I also wanted to show its relationship with the little girls helping it (hint, hint, icon and index). I chose simple images and bright colors because I wanted everything to appear very cute and innocent, like the little ponies every girl wants as a child. I also wanted the text to be really simple.