Empoword

Part Two: Text Wrestling 163 Activities Personal Photo Analysis For this activity, find a photograph (digital or printed) that has some sort of emotional gravity for you: it could be a picture of a loved one, a treasured memory, a favorite place, anything that makes you feel something. On a clean sheet of paper, free-write about the photo in response to the following prompts for three minutes each: 1) Describe the photograph as a whole. What’s happening? Who is in it? Use vivid description to capture the photo in writing as best you can. 2) Zoom in on one element of the photo—one color, shape, object, person, etc. How does this part relate to the greater whole ? 3) Zoom out and describe what’s not shown in the photo. What’s happening just out of frame? What’s happening just before, just after? What are the emotions you associate with this moment? Now, trade photos with a friend or classmate who’s also working on this activity. Repeat the same free-write prompts and compare your responses. What do the differences indicate about the interpretive process ? About context? About the position of the reader and the limitations on the author (photographer)? Unpacking Advertisements: Analyzing Visual Rhetoric One of the most common forms of visual rhetoric we encounter on a daily basis are advertisements; indeed, advertisements are more and more prominent with the growth of technology, and increasingly tailored to the target audience. The ads we encounter often blend language, images, sound, and video to achieved their intended purpose—to convince you to buy something. To practice analysis, you can close read an advertisement or advertising campaign. 1) Choose a brand, product, or corporation that you find interesting. One that I’ve found especially engaging is Levi’s 2009 “Go Forth” advertising campaign . 61 2) Try to identify the subject , occasion , audience , and purpose of the advertisement. Often, there is an obvious or declared answer for each of these (the subject of the Levi’s campaign is “Levi’s jeans” and the purpose is “to make you buy Levi’s jeans”), but there are also more subtle answers (the subject is also “American millennial empowerment” and the purpose is also “create a youthful, labor-oriented brand”). 3) Identify what parts of the advertisement contribute to the whole: what colors, shapes, words, images, associations, etc., does the ad play on in order to achieve its purpose? Do you notice symbols, patterns, or references?