As a species we seem to be driven by a desire to make meanings:above all, we are surely Homo significans – meaning-makers. (Daniel Chandler, 2018)

We live in a world drenched in images, we are privy to them when we scroll through own phones, they stare down at us from billboards and graffiti licks urban landscapes. But what comprises an image and through what lens are we deciphering what we see? This, my friends is is known as Semiotics or simply the science of signs. So let’s take a look at at what the facets of Semiotics are in regards to the above image.

What does this image denote or signify? At first glance we see a woman with a sign, saying ‘love’, a bright umbrella and a determined look on her face. As the image pans back we can see a number of people with cameras in press high vis vests. The woman is walking on a road with tipped over trash cans and a crowd has gathered on the bridge, it denotes that she is in a city and that it is night time. The connotation or what is being signified of this image with no context is a woman protesting and perhaps there are many others in front of her judging by the haphazard chaos of the street and perhaps this has been an enduring event as its night fall. I am signified that something is awry, that it is momentous and that there is turmoil.

What shapes our interpretation of an image? What personal ideologies form our response? Stuart Hall speaks to this with his encoding and decoding model suggesting that what the author intends is not necessarily how the reader perceives or interprets it. Does the encoder of the message want us to notice how regular the woman looks, that she is an average citizen standing up in the face of adversity. Her attire actually threw me off for a moment as I registered a happy response to the immediate signifiers, the love sign, bright dress and umbrella. This image demands an awareness of the protests in Hong Kong but even without prior knowledge we can decode that the image is important due to the large number of press following the woman or potential crowd.

I think it is important to note that semiotics seem to have an added layer of complexity as it’s applied to journalistic photography, ‘it works metonymically not metaphorically, and so does not draw attention to the creativity involved in its construction: it appears more natural’ (Fiske, 2010). We are presented with an image and must construct an understanding around it in order to decode or understand it. This is where our cultural background comes into play and where connotations arise. Does my cultural background allow me to understand that this is an image of political importance, do I notice the subtly of her not wearing a mask? Can I make the link between the press wearing high tech masks and that she is only armed only with an umbrella against the potential threat of tear gas. Does her gender signify a specific response and does my gender factor into my reading?

The language of photography also comes into play as we digest the image, was this shot selected as to align us with the author of the image as we can clearly see the press and therefore assume that this is has been taken by the another member of the press and that we can trust the image. What we are not seeing also factors into this paradigm. So what have we learnt? That perception is everything and nothing is real (Dion, 2021).

References:

Fiske, John; Jenkins, Henry, introduction to communications studies, 2011

Stuart Hall, James Proctor, Taylor and Francis group, 2004