Self Portrait

Realism is described as the quality or fact of representing a person, thing, or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life. This chapter speaks a lot about authenticity and having a genuine, undisputed origin. That is exactly what the first picture represents in my self-portrait. This self-portrait is an empirical representation of who I am but portrays me with a large smile on my face, a quality that I always want to be known for. Also, I chose to represent myself in a glitter shirt because I love the idea of standing out and always finding away to shine. The picture is square on so when considering the rule of thirds, the central intersection would be my nose and mouth area that is exactly where the camera was directed. This photograph stands as a visual representation of what I look like physically, but people can’t technically extract a deeper understanding about who I am emotionally by viewing this self-portrait. Rationally, this photo does a great job to express the way I present myself to the public on a day-to-day basis and is a good picture to identify my physical composition to someone who may not recognize me.

Opposed to this, the second picture presents who I am at a deeper level using symbolic representation. The only similarity in both of the photos is that you can tell in both pictures the outline and skin is the same in both my empirical and rational portrait. Besides this, I chose many different important symbols repurpose them as my facial and body parts. For instance, I used a soccer ball as one eye and a basketball as the other because I played both of these sports my whole life and have always been an athlete. I transferred from Merrimack College where I played soccer, and at Roger Williams University I am a member of the women’s basketball team. I decided that my smile was too dull in the first picture and the lipstick did not stand out so I added a brighter smile with cherry-red lipstick on because I find a lot of enjoyment looking at makeup tutorials in my spare time and trying out new and styles and ways to express myself. I made my hair as the waves and the background as a sunny day with a blue sky because I absolutely love the beach. I have grown up basically living in Martha’s Vineyard as my second home and most of the time my family needs to pull me out of the water when it is time to leave the beach at the end of the day. My family jokes and says that I am practically a mermaid at this point in my life. I am wearing a Wampanoag headband in the picture that a typically Wampanoag girl would wear because I am a member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head that is located in Martha’s Vineyard as well. It is a big part of who I am because I still partake in many different tribal events, gatherings, and the education department has been a major help regarding scholarship purposes in order to attend this school.

The last few symbols that I added to this portrait are a bird flying in the sky, a tattoo of family members holding a heart, and a purple glitter shirt. The bird is symbolic because I am a wanderer. I always move to my own beat and believe that there is no task too big for me to handle with a little work and dedication. My great grandma just passed away last year at 103 and she was my absolute idol in life. Her favorite thing in the world was watching and feeding the birds and that is another reason why this animal is so important to me. I chose a beautiful tropical bird because it connected with my beach theme and the fact that I love bright colors, explaining why I’m always wearing bright makeup. The members of the family holding the heart is significant because my family and I are incredibly close and I always hold them closest to my heart no matter how far away I am at school. Finally, alike the empirical self-portrait, I am wearing a glitter shirt. This time, the glitter shirt is bright purple because purple is my favorite color, and it stands out better as well.

The theorist from Practices of Looking that best suits this assignment is Walter Benjamin because he was known for his concern that reproducing artwork changes the meaning of the original image. This is clearly true in the two photos I have shared on this blog because in one photo viewers can just see what I decide to reveal daily on the outside of my skin, yet the second image allows viewers to have a deeper understanding of me, and get to know more about me by just analyzing one photo.

I learned from this assignment that realism and perspective is in the eye of the beholder, and symbolic representation is a better approach to represent the “true self”.

Spectatorship and Power Relationships in Advertising

“he gaze is an important concept in visual culture studies that helps place emphasis on spectatorship, power and knowledge within photographs. The gaze is not the act of looking itself, but the viewing relationship characteristic of a particular set of social circumstances. Individuals such as Jacques-Lucan and Michel Foucault have placed a major emphasis on the importance of this term although in simple terms it means, “to look at or stare, often with eagerness or desire.” When considering the ways that an image or visual text invites certain responses, the gaze becomes an important factor to help come to such conclusions. Today, the world is flooded with advertisements and media and the “gaze” is present in many of these advertisements to help viewers notice it and send a stronger message amongst all the other clutter.

One example in particular where the gaze technique is used can be found is in an advertisement for the Golden Touch Motorola Razor cell phone. In this advertisement there is a beautiful woman staring directly back at the viewer with a slight smirk on her face, as she holds up the sleep Motorola Razor phone to her lips. The text next to the photograph explains, “Snakeskin feel. Golden touch. Elegant 18k gold plating. Sensual snakeskin texture. Lavish-enriched detailing. Sharper than ever.” In this advertisement it is clear that the woman is dressed elegant, with perfectly slicked back hair, luxurious matching eye shadow, and eliciting a sensual and provocative stare. The subject clearly knows she is the object being viewed by spectators and by the use of eye contact it becomes obvious that she wants to be the center of attention, so people will notice her, then indirectly notice the product that she is promoting. Another characteristic of the photo that supports this is the fact that she is smirking. She knows that she looks elegant, mysterious, and empowering and clearly likes to make a statement by using her gold makeup to help make a connection with her sleek look and the new luxury edition gold razor phone that she is promoting. Her body language sends the message that she is of high class and doesn’t settle for anything less than luxurious. This technique is used in hopes that it will reach a type of target market that has similar feelings and likes to brag about their wealth through the expensive products that they purchase.

Another advertisement using more than one subject that also uses the “gaze” technique is an advertisement for Louis Vuitton. This picture exhibits a male on his hands and knees with Jennifer Lopez kneeling on top of him in a sexual position. She is clearly the dominant figure in this picture, wearing pink high heels, hair tightly pulled back into a ponytail, a little black dress, and making direct eye contact with the camera. The male model is physically exposed and shirtless. He makes no eye contact with the audience and his hair is messy which symbolizes that she has been roughing him around. It seems to send a message that one should never underestimate the power of a woman in high heels, and that the right shoes or look could make a man completely submissive to her power. Although the thinkers Jacques-Lucan and Michel Foucault are greatly influential when discussing this theory, it is important to also point out Mary Ann Doane’s use of psychoanalysis to theorize the fact that men do not always need to play the dominant role. Woman can identify with the male position of mastery or exercise voyeuristic tendencies, which is perfectly depicted in the images used above.

This assignment helped me learn that advertisements not only use “the gaze” to help catch the attention of viewers, but also strategically chooses the direction of the gaze, as well as the dominant individual expressing the gaze to help place emphasis on a specific aspect of the advertisement. The emphasis created by the use of “the gaze” in turn helps viewers to come to a better understanding of what overall message is being communicated.

Media Appropriation

On page 83 of the reading, the authors discuss the phenomenon of “appropriation” as the act of borrowing, stealing, or taking other’s meanings to one’s own ends and cultural appropriation as the process of “borrowing” and changing the meaning of commodities, cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion. One example in particular was a recent picture posted by famous pop star Beyoncé on her instagram page. The picture portrays Beyoncé dressed as Rosie the Riveter, wearing a red bandana and denim shirt while she flashes her bicep muscle towards the camera. The signature slogan remains in the background expressing in big letters, “We Can Do It!” in order to help parallel the infamous World War II poster.

The main picture was a photo of Rosie the Riveter was created by the name J. Howard Miller in 1943 and used as an American wartime propaganda poster. The iconic figure depicts a strong female war production worker. This advertisement was created by Westinghouse Electric to exhort already-hired women to work even harder. The “We Can Do It!” text used in the image was promoted feminism and gave women a sense of empowerment and self-confidence to play a more important role in society during this time. It is also important to point out that in this photo Rosie the Riveter is drawn out to be very muscular, with a serious and firm face on, and a badge on her collar that symbolizes strength and success. Her hair is tied back in a tight bun, and her cheeks are tinted red to also elicit a tough-look, or help viewers confirm that she has been working hard to become red in the cheeks.

Opposed to this, Beyoncé posted a similar photo where she took the role as Rosie the Riveter. In this photo, Beyoncé is completely glamorous, modeling with her curly hair flowing down her back, make-up and lips perfectly polished, no muscle, and not exposing rosy cheeks or sweat in the slightest bit. She is dressed to symbolize the “perfect look” that ladies want to achieve today, which greatly differs from the image of Rosie the Riveter. The words still express in big letters “We Can Do It” and her outfit is basically the same besides the collar and pin on her shirt, yet this photo is used for a complete different type of campaign. This photo was created shortly after one of Beyoncé’s new albums came out where she released songs called, “Flawless” and “Who Run’s the World? Girls.” in “Flawless” she speaks of lyrics that express, “We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, “You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful Otherwise you will threaten the man.” The song proceeds to try and give any female listener the power to go against the status quo and try to stand out, be ambitious, and follow any dream they have no matter how big or small. It holds a powerful message, but most of the time these woman are not listening to Beyoncé and ambitiously going out to join the military or war. Instead these woman are taking the message and using it to get themselves to the gym to look better or feel skinnier, in order to attain the perfect look that Beyoncé is eliciting.

The picture is definitely used for a different meaning, but worked wonders to help people obtain copies of Beyoncé’s new record since people were familiar with the first image. It also helped boost Beyoncé’s feminist image that she is trying to expose in order to help gain popularity from woman all around the world that strongly believe in female power and equal rights.

Finally, I believe that the term bricolage” fits very appropriately when speaking about appropriation. The reason why I believe this is because it is defined as, “The practice of working with whatever materials are at hand, “Making do” with what one has by taking commodities and making them one’s own by giving them new meaning.” This is exactly what Beyoncé did by using the old Rosie the Riveter photo which already symbolized female power, and used it for her own feminist movement.

This assignment has really opened my eyes to how much the media uses appropriation in every day advertisements for their own benefits. It seems as if any image can be changed and warped these days in order to produce success to whatever campaign the creator is trying to expose. This is quite terrifying because it makes it a lot harder to know what is the truth, and a lot of these old photographs are being forgotten when the new user gives it a complete different meaning.

Icons In Our Society

The text describes icons as “An image that refers to something outside of its individual components, something (or someone) that has great symbolic meaning for many people . . . Image icons are experienced as if universal, but their meanings are always historically and contextually produced.” Voss water that is based out of Norway uses an attractive male or female body as their icon to produce a positive vibe from consumers and persuade them to purchase the Voss brand of water in a highly saturated market for bottled water. The ads never show the individuals faces, but instead the body that is photographed always resembles societies idea of the “perfect body”. A body in which there is no fat and incredible muscle or tone.

In each advertisement the actual bottle of water is always enlarged next to the photographed body along with the words, “60% pure natural drinking water, and 100% inspiration.” This factor is important to point out because the word choices used help to develop this positive reaction towards the brand. For instance the words pure and natural elicit an understanding that the water is amongst some of the freshest water sources around. Also, the words, “100% inspiration” that are strategically placed right next to the toned and muscular bodies are used as a convincing mechanism that actually inspires viewers to drink more water, Voss water in particular, if they want to receive the health benefits that water produces, in hopes to look as toned and perfect as the models in the advertisement.

In this advertisement the signifier is the Voss water bottle that is present in every advertisement. The signified is the “hot body” that is typically colored on a gray scale in order to resemble the gray cap and crisp, fresh emotion that is evoked from the product. These advertisements help to convince the audience that if they drink Voss water the same results will happen to them as the models used for the advertisement. It provokes emotions of being healthy, sexy, and having good hygiene. The strategy is similar to the strategy that many perfume companies use to provoke a same reaction. For instance, in class we spoke about the Polo advertisement that depicted a good looking man in a crisp blue polo shirt and posing in a sexy, mysterious way for the camera. We concluded that the equation for this advertisement was the polo perfume bottle, combined with the “cool guy” used in the advertisements produced emotions of wealth and luxury. This is the exact emotion that the Polo Company was trying to produce when creating this advertisement.

I hate to admit it but this advertisement definitely convinced me in a way in the past. I think a big part of why I really liked buying this water instead of a cheaper brand like Aquafina is because of how enticing the bottle is. The bottle itself just looks like a luxury bottle, and the company did this by the beautiful rounded gray top, the font choice used for the water, and placing it in a glass bottle instead of a plastic water bottle. My brother and I used to get into arguments when we were younger because he believed that it actually tasted better than other brands and I would always disagree. After drinking it for so long, I began to believe this too until I went off to school and had to go back to living the life of a poor college kid. As an athlete I still see water as a essential part of my every day diet to maintain good health and a lean body, yet I am not as obsessed as I used to be about only drinking this type of water apart from the rest. I really like Voss’s marketing and advertisements; they are simple but also help promote a universal message that water is a very important part of every day diet. There are no calories in water; it helps the metabolism functions, keep clear skin, and many other health benefits as well. If people drink more water every day they will be that much closer to the “perfect body” that they always imagined. This body may not exactly resemble the one photographed above because everyone has a different idea of what the “perfect body” should look like, but it brings them one step closer to getting to whatever shape and size that might be in a healthy and safe way. This assignment taught me how iconic advertisements that we see every day in multiple places use universal messages to help connect a specific reaction each time a person sees the product.

Finally, the theory from the PL reading that fits the most for this assignment is semiotics because it is a theory that is concerned with the ways in which words, images and objects are vehicles for meaning. In this case, the bodies and the Voss water bottle are used as vehicles for a luxury water brand.