Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, writer and academic. He wrote some key texts on photography and in particular his writings address a number of ways in which we can interpret and understand the meanings within photographs over and above what the image depicts.
What is Semiotics?
The theory was developed in order to understand how language works Semiotics asks questions such as
- How do we use language to communicate?
- What is the relationship between the words we use and the real things in the world that we are referring to?
The terms comes from the ancient Greek word semeion meaning “sign” It is a way of analysing meanings by looking at the signs which communicate these meanings ‘Signs’ can be words, pictures or symbols.
Why use semiotics?
- Semiotics reveals the hidden nature of verbal and visual communication
- It sheds light on the way in which our imaginations fill in the gaps and sorts out the misunderstandings in human communication
- A message must be understandable to its audience for meaning to take place
- “Readers” (the audience) negotiate between their experience and the message itself
- Semioticians see the generation of meaning as an active process.
Aspects to study in Semiotics
1.The sign itself (image/word)
- Variety of different ways signs have of conveying meaning
2.The codes or systems into which signs are organized (language)
- A variety of codes have developed to meet the needs of a society/culture
3.The culture within which these codes and signs operate.
- The use of these codes and signs for the culture’s existence, form and extension.
Peirce: Icon, Index, Symbol
An icon signifies in virtue of its resemblance, or its analogical relation to what it wishes to represent. The icon is the simplest sign since it is a pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for’.
A symbol does not resemble what it refers to; it signifies through the force of convention (language). An index does not necessarily resemble its referent. It signifies in virtue of a relationship with its referent, often defined by some sensory feature (visible, audible etc) E.g: Smoke is an index of Fire.
Saussure: Signifier – Signified
Saussure offered a ‘dyadic’ or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of:
–a ‘signifier’ (signifiant) – the form which the sign takes; and
–the ‘signified’ (signifié) – the concept it represents.
The word ‘Open’ (when it is invested with meaning by someone who encounters it on a shop doorway) is a sign consisting of:
- a signifier: the word open
- a signified concept: that the shop is open for business.
Take the word Cat
1.The signifier is made up of the letters “c-a-t” and sound and appearance of the word.
2.The reader/listener hears/reads this sign but doesn’t consider an actual cat but the concept of “cat”, the signified: Four legged furry animal which meows and purrs.
How do signs and meanings relate?
The word (signifier) ‘cat’ doesn’t relate to a single individual – it stands for all cats. Your image of a cat will be very different from mine. There is an arbitrary relation between a sign and its meaning. The relation between signs and what they signify is based on convention.
How do signs and meanings relate?
If the relation between signifier and signified is only defined by convention, then meaning or signification is socially and historically constructed.
Barthes: The Photographic Message
Roland Barthes adapts the linguistic ‘science’ of semiotics and uses it to interrogate culture. From the study of verbal language to that of cultural phenomena: films, photographs, fashion, advertising, etc. Developing a common vocabulary and a rigorous method for the critical analysis of mass culture. Understanding the complexity and meaningfulness of all cultural artefacts despite their apparent “obviousness”.
Messages and Codes
As a Linguist, Barthes makes a distinction between ‘messages’ and ‘codes’. A message is a singular, meaningful unit of discourse (a picture or writing). A code is an abstraction created by the reader – a logic reconstructed from the materials provided by the message. Barthes argues that this distinction between messages and codes is problematic when we deal with photographic image, because of the special nature of photographs. Photographs are pictures of things in the world. They are true likenesses of those things. This close relationship between the image and the thing depicted makes it difficult to see how the viewer can add their own meaning to it.
The ‘reality effect’ of photographs
The “reality-effect”: So-called “realism” of the image makes it appear to be “natural” rather than socially and historically constructed. The photograph transmits the literal reality of the scene depicted. However there is no requirement to set up a relay between the object and its photographic image (to create a code). The photograph appears to be a ‘message without a code’. There are other messages without codes – drawings, paintings, cinema, theatre. These are all analogues* of reality (*comparable, similar, related) All these ‘imitative’ arts carry a denoted message (their resemblance to reality) and a connoted message which is the way in which we approach these art forms (as stylistic interpretations of reality which in themselves carry additional messages).
However, the photograph seems to only carry a single message – the denoted message. This first order message completely fills it and leaves no room for a second order (connoted) message. Because of the ‘reality effect’ of photographs in particular, because of their method of construction, we are in danger of not realising that photographs are capable of connotation (of code) unless we think about the content and contexts of the image more carefully.
The Photographic Paradox
Photographs appear to be objective, factual. However it’s likely that they too have connoted messages which can be inferred from the production and reception of the message. The photographic paradox is therefore the coexistence of two messages: the one without a code (the photographic analogue) – the denotation and the one with a code (the ‘art’ or treatment of the subject, the rhetoric of the photograph) – the connotation.
Denotation – Connotation
- Denotation: what is literally depicted by the photograph: elements in the image which communicate facts: Large, ornate building, blue sky, empty surroundings, wide space. What is literally depicted by the photograph: elements in the image which communicate facts.
Connotation: what is suggested by the depiction to the viewer: extra associations specific to culture or through knowledge of the context of the image: Buckingham Palace, London, royalty, wealth, ‘Britishness’, political inequality etc. What is suggested by the depiction to the viewer: extra associations specific to culture or through knowledge of the context of the image.
Forms of Connotation
Barthes states: “It may be that the photograph is not consumed primarily as a denoted message, that is, as neutral, objective and analogous to reality. It’s likely that there are different orders of connotation at work in the photograph.”
1.Perceptive connotation – the photograph is verbalised at the moment it is perceived. (this is similar to denotation, in that facts about the image content are perceived by the viewer immediately and without needing to name them)
2.Cognitive connotation – factual elements of the image are picked out or understood because of the viewer’s knowledge.
3.Ideological and ethical connotation – the elements that convey the strongest and most complex message.
Photographic connotations
In ‘The Photographic Message’ Barthes identifies some forms of connotation which seem particular to photography. He sees these as forms of connotation (meaning making) that are created at different points in the production of the photograph (subject choice, technical treatment, framing etc) He identifies six forms of photographic connotation.
Pose – the position of a figure which itself contains messages from culture, history, literature, painting (e.g, pieta, praying).
Objects – objects are signifiers and associate with ideas in culture. The arrangement or selection of objects creates a connotation in the photograph.
Aestheticism – photographs which compositionally emulate paintings or other culturally known images.
Trick effects – the disruption of the credibility of the photograph as an analogon of reality by creating a false simulation.
‘Photogenia’ – an informational structure related to the technology of photographic production (lighting, exposure, printing) through which certain effects (motion blur, double exposure etc) create connotations in the photograph.
Syntax – the connotation create by viewing a sequence of images and which emerges from the photographs in relation to each other rather than singly.
Text and Image
Text and image can never be read as the same thing. Sometimes text invents and projects an entirely new set of signifiers onto the image which are not detectable in the photograph. Or it can contradict what appears to be shown in the image.
Beyond connotation
“Truly traumatic photographs are rare, for in photography the trauma is wholly dependent on the certainty that the scene ‘really’ happened: the photographer had to be there (which is the mystical definition of denotation).
Hidden messages
In this and later writings Barthes is particularly concerned with the ‘hidden messages’ that come to us via advertising, and how text and image combine to create meanings that are culturally created but yet are seen as ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ because they are so familiar. To do this he refined some of his terms, although the basic principles of his analysis remain the same.
Looking at advertising Barthes identified three messages:
1.The linguistic message (the words and text used to accompany images)
2.Non-coded Iconic message (The “literal message” or ‘denotation’ of the picture)
3.Coded Iconic Message (The “symbolic message” or ‘connotation’ of the picture)
Myth
Some signs become so closely linked with a certain set of connotations that the reading of the messages becomes culturally and socially constrained to a particular set of ideas – they become ideological. Barthes refers to these ideological messages as Myth. The function of Myth is to naturalize the cultural – in other words, to make dominant cultural and historical values, attitudes and beliefs seem entirely ‘natural’, ‘normal’, self-evident, timeless, obvious and ‘common-sense’ – and thus objective and ‘true’ reflections of ‘the way things are’.
Katie Jane Fildes Contextual Journal 