Analysis of an image

Danielle Salm
Professor Hammond
Visual Literacy
February 14, 2010



The picture that I have picked is out of a scene from the movie A Walk to Remember. It is a story about two completely different people whose lives cross paths and they end up saving each other and finding out that they have a lot more in common then they had originally thought. I picked this picture because yet simple, there is a lot going on. People who haven’t seen the movie could see what is happening as something completely different than what it really is. I am pretty sure that this is a still from the movie but I am not completely sure because it looks like it has been touched up. There are many messages that can be shown by the ways they are sitting, their facial expressions, the lighting, angles, setting, etc. Through the use of Nick Lacey’s ideas of content, composition, and codes, the overall theme of a picture can be explained without the use of any words.
To the people that have never seen the movie, or know the story line there are many observations that they could make about the picture. First of all, one could think that the picture portrays the generic couple in love sitting in the park leisurely. By the look on her face, it could be read as a silly girl who is living in a fantasy land of what she would like her life to be like or what she thinks it might actually be. When looking at him one could think that he is bored or angry. It is logical to think that he is thinking of someone else or that he could be doing something better with his time. He could even look as if he was there not by choice but because it was mandatory. To the untrained eye, it is easy to make assumptions about what this picture is trying to say. In taking Lacey’s ideas anyone who has seen the movie or hasn’t seen it can develop an understanding of the preferred reading of the picture.
Mandy Moore, who plays the character Jamie, has a sense of calm. She seems happy. She is closing her eyes and taking in the moment. Her arms are loosely rested on her lap in a way that ensures she feels security and warmth. Her clothes also show that she is very comfortable because she doesn’t feel the need to impress him; she is content in her own skin. She also portrays a feeling of hopelessness because she is leaning on him. If he were not there she would fall and that says a lot about her character in the movie. She begins to need him and he is what helps her stay alive. He brought life to her.
Shane West plays the part of Landon in this movie. He portrays a sense of conflict through his eyes. His eyebrows are tightened and his face is stiff showing a sense of frustration. He is sitting up with his arm stiffly planted on the ground to ensure he can keep her up. He knows that if he breaks his stance he could lose the delicate girl. He also has is knee up to ensure that she is safe and molded into him. His arm is up holding her head, once again showing that he needs to protect her. He is also comfortably dressed which shows that he can completely be himself around her.
The standard TV scene takes place in the forest where Landon brought Jamie so that she could see star that could only be seen right before daybreak. The background is dark, which creates the feeling of trouble and dark days. The low key lighting creates a somber mood which goes along with the gloomy days that are to come. Then there is a light gleaming over one side of the both of them. I feel as if the light can be symbolic for death because of the dark setting and the whole idea of the light at the end of the tunnel. It could also symbolize the love that these two individuals share. It can be used to show the importance of the two people in the picture and the bond that they have created. The high key lighting on their faces is supposed to create a feeling of optimism so the picture is trying to show that in all of the darkness and sadness, something good will come of it.
The angle of this picture is neutral to show that these two individuals are equal. No one has more power or is powerless in comparison to one another. At first I thought that this picture was a close-up because of the intimacy between the characters and the emotion gleaming out of the picture but if that was the point that was trying to be shown it would have just been a picture of their faces and shoulders. Since more of their bodies are in the picture it is characterized as a medium close-up which shows growing tension. This tension is obviously shown through Shane’s character and in knowing that fact about the distance of the shot one can see that the picture isn’t in fact trying to show their love but the problems ahead of them. The composition of the picture is dynamic to create the feeling of conflict. There is a selective focus in the picture in which the characters are deeply in focus showing the mise en scène while the background is blurred out to indicate the importance of the characters. The shot is from a side angle to accentuate how they are intertwined in each other as opposed to a head on shot. The characters are also placed more to the right side of the picture which was probably done following the rule of thirds. To get an idea of where they are the forest needs to be incorporated. If the characters were in the middle of the picture, people wouldn’t be able to read where they are and come up with all of the translations of the photo.
Through each of Nick Lacey’s image analysis concepts, anybody can learn how to “read” a picture that has no words. His ideas create the words that we are missing, and they tell us a story of the images we analyze. While walking myself through the steps I found that each of his interpretations of expressions, placement, lighting, and so on were pretty much on point with the message that the movie creates. These concepts also help me to understand how much effort is put into specific ads for movies, products, or events to reveal the appropriate emotion for the intended crowds. What is interesting is how much one picture can say without having to sit through a 2 hour movie. These formal and compositional features are extremely important in gaining the interest of people and giving them a sense what they are to expect.