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| Peter Kennard |
How Text Changes the Meaning of the Image
An image can alter a person’s feelings drastically whether it be for political reasons or emotional. For instance; taking a campaign like Domestic Abuse the poster or advert needs to gain an audiences’ disgust and be thought provoking to be effective. Adding text to the image can somewhat change a person’s reaction to the image in a different way. For example; political activists use humour to appeal to an audience. Photomontage artist Peter Kennard takes iconic images and merges them together to shock the audience even though they can be seen as humorous. However, to gain a better perception of an issue, text can change an image. Photographer Jim Goldberg took photographs of residents in a hotel and runaways on the street. He then got them to handwrite comments about themselves. The comments vary from fears and dreams to perceptions and illusions about themselves or their life. The one particular photograph that captured my attention was the image of the girl who looks skinny enough to be anorexic at a distance, but you look closely and see a scar, you then read the text and she describes her past and how her family hurt her “the fucked up ass hole shot me when I was 12 years old” (spelling mistake intended- her grammar). The message therefore deepens in what only can be described as disgust as you realise the girl is homeless not by her own doing and why she is indeed thin.
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| Jim Goldberg |
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| John Heartfield |
How Text Influences our Emotions
Text adds a story or feeling to an image. The text can alter a person’s prospective, particularly if the image is quite funny yet the text is a deep, political issue. For example; photomontage artist John Heartfield took on satirising Hitler. He made comic scenes that involved Hitler and added text to illustrate the scene in a political view. His most memorable work is "Hurrah, the Butter Is Finished!" here a typical German family are sitting at a table eating iron. Iron which ranges from weaponry to bicycle handles. The caption below the image states that “iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat”. Therefore, the image becomes disturbing and thought provoking. Changing our emotions can change our views on a subject. The images that use text aren’t always dark though, another artist that uses this concept is the brilliant Graham Rawle, he also is a photomontage artist that worked for the Weekend Guardian, he was the creator of the Lost Consonants series. The series was a text and image word play where he would take a sentence that has one crucial letter removed which alters the meaning. These were engaging as the reader would try and work out what letter was missing and are also humorous because the images were created from the sentences.
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| Graham Rawle |
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