In popular usage Myth refers to beliefs which are demonstrably false, but semiotic use of the term does not necessarily suggest this.
Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our
experiences within a culture.
People initially associate the photograph of Marilyn Monroe with her star qualities of glamour, sexuality, beauty - if this is an early photograph - but also with her depression, drug-taking and
untimely death if it is one of her last photographs.
At a mythic level we understand this sign as activating the myth of Hollywood: the dream factory that produces glamour in the form of the stars it constructs, also the dream machine that can crush them.
Photographs can be read in many ways, on many levels. Photographs are representations: a photograph of a person is not that person, but a representation of them. The object is a sign, an index, an icon.
Semiotics allows for definition of photography’s type of realism. Photograph is both an icon and an index - it resembles the reality and points to it at the same time.
A portrait is also an index as it captures a moment, and by looking at photograph the viewer feels taken to that time and place.
The information in images (semiotics) can be read and understood in different ways according to varying human factors:
~Cultural background
~Economic status
~Geographic location
~Gender
~Psychological state
~Political beliefs
~Religious beliefs
~Sexual preference
Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our
experiences within a culture.
People initially associate the photograph of Marilyn Monroe with her star qualities of glamour, sexuality, beauty - if this is an early photograph - but also with her depression, drug-taking and
untimely death if it is one of her last photographs.
At a mythic level we understand this sign as activating the myth of Hollywood: the dream factory that produces glamour in the form of the stars it constructs, also the dream machine that can crush them.
Photographs can be read in many ways, on many levels. Photographs are representations: a photograph of a person is not that person, but a representation of them. The object is a sign, an index, an icon.
Semiotics allows for definition of photography’s type of realism. Photograph is both an icon and an index - it resembles the reality and points to it at the same time.
A portrait of famous person is an icon in that it resembles their likeness in physical appearance.
A portrait is also an index as it captures a moment, and by looking at photograph the viewer feels taken to that time and place.
The information in images (semiotics) can be read and understood in different ways according to varying human factors:
~Cultural background
~Economic status
~Geographic location
~Gender
~Psychological state
~Political beliefs
~Religious beliefs
~Sexual preference
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