Assignment 2

Part B

In this assignment we were asked firstly to randomly choose 3 images and ask a group of people of different ages, backgrounds, genders etc to analyse these photos and say what there understanding of the story that these three images convey. After that we had to add a 4th image and see if this helped people come up with the same interpretation of the image and then finally after that add text to one image and if they didn't come up with the same interpretation then add text to another image until everyone had the same understanding on the set of images.

My first image was this one which is a bottle of wine with two wine glasses.

The second image is this photo which looks like a tropical island or paradise.

The third photo is of a love heart in the sky.

Part C

The people that I chose for this task were different ages, different genders, from different backgrounds and from different areas. I think that it is important to have a variety of people for this experiment so that it would work best. Most of the responses were very similar but it was interesting to see how different people interpret the same thing.

"A couple go on a romantic holiday and a plane draws a heart in the sky" Kirsty, 19, Montrose, Student

"A couple went away on a romantic get away where they relaxed on the beach and drank wine while watching the sun set" Fiona, 19, Balloch, Student

"Someone goes on holiday and has fun relaxing on the beach and drinking wine and they meet someone and fall in love." Ashley, 17, Rothesay, 6th Year Pupil.

"A couple went on a romantic holiday to a beautiful island and spent their time relaxing on the beach and drinking wine." Katie, 19, Glasgow, Student.

"A couple are on holiday and they are lying on the beach one day watching the sunset and drinking wine and the man proposes to his girlfriend" Brad, 21, Rothesay, Landscape Gardener

Part D

I now had to chose one of the previous stories and add a fourth image and see if the next group of people all have the same response to the images. The story that I chose was the second one by Fiona. The 4th image was a kiwi fruit.

"A couple were on their honeymoon on an exotic island. They lay on the beach all day sunbathing, relaxing and eating exotic fruits. When night fell it was time for champagne while watching a beautiful sunset." Sarah, 20, Northern Ireland, Student.

"There was nothing better than sitting on the beach at night with a glass of wine watching the sun set. Or during the day I loved spending the day looking at the crisp white clouds in the sky." Karen, 21, Northern Ireland, Student.

"A newly married couple decided to spend their honeymoon on a beautiful island. They planned to spend their time relaxing underneath the beautiful sky and also eating and drinking fresh food and drink." Ross, 22, Dundee, Student.

"A couple were on holiday on a beautiful island and spent their time watching the sunset, eating fresh fruit and drinking wine." Siobhan, 20, Stirling, Student.

Part E

For this part of the assignment I added the word "Honeymoon" to one of the images.

"A couple are on their honeymoon on an exotic island and they spent their time eating fresh fruit, drinking wine and watching the sun set." Gregor, 18, Rothesay, Blacksmith

"There is a couple on their honeymoon abroad on an exotic island" Harley, 18, Rothesay, Mechanic.

"There is a couple on their honeymoon on a tropical island and they spend everyday relaxing in the sun, eating fresh food and drinking lovely wine." Georgeann, 51, Rothesay, Primary Teacher

"It was the middle of the summer and a newly married couple were on their honeymoon on an exotic island and they spent every day with each other sunbathing on the beach and eating the local produce." Jen, 22, Rothesay, Sectary.

"A young couple are on their honeymoon in New Zealand and spent their time at beaches and drinking wine" Mairi, 26, Glasgow, Nurse.

"There was a newly married couple on their honeymoon on an exotic island and they spent all of their time eating fresh fruit, drinking wine and relaxing on the beach." Sian 26 Rothesay, Nurse

"Newly married couple on their honeymoon on an exotic island. They spent all of their time relaxing on the beach and drinking wine" Janine, 24, Rothesay, Factory Worker.

I think that this assignment was a good way to learn that many different people read into photographs in different ways but when text is added to the photo, the image is interpreted very well by the viewers. In the first experiment the first responses where quite similar but as i added another image and text then everyone's responses started to become more similar. This experiment definitely helped my understanding of Barthes' essay "The rhetoric image" as I learned that adding text helps the viewer understand the image a bit more than they did without the text.