Author: Minou von Maydell
Photo credit: Alessandro Grassani
The photo published by the afore-noted source, the New York Times is an example for visual mass communication. In order to analyze the photo properly, we first need to use Laswell’s formula that describes a model of mass communication.
According to Laswell’s formula, we can say that the communicator is the news channel News York times, the message is the photo of the building, the channel is the online source, the receiver are the reading public of the new York times and the intended effect is in my opinion the spreading of courage and strong company in these times of covid-19.
Below, you find the second approach to analyze the photo more deeply. By means of the visual context analysis chart by Müller & Kappas (2011) we can classify the type of picture.
Looking at the production context, the photo was taken by a photographer and afterwards sold to the news agency. Thus, it has a private and a journalistic context. The reception context is journalistic as well because people reading the news will come across the picture which shows that the photo is part of an article, a journalistic format.
The next step is using the interpretation model Panofsky’s, of analysis of art. Panofsky’s model is based on understanding the cultural or social context of the art instead of relying on literature sources. The method consists of three steps building on each other.
Pre-iconographic phase
First of all, we must analyze the formal composition such as planimetry and perspective. The pre-iconographic phase is objective, that means the description of the picture should remain impartial without drawing conclusions.
In this picture, for instance, shows a building frontage in horizontal format. The picture was taken in frog’s eye perspective.You can see several people sticking their heads out of different windows on the façade. The people are doing different things.
Some of them clap, some look to the side. All in all, everyone has a positive face expression, some are laughing, some are smirking.
Iconographic phase
The first impression of the picture as a whole is a straight-line symmetry.
The symmetric wall forms a contrast to the people leaning over the windowsill that gives a human touch to the picture. Although each person or a pair have separate windows all for themselves giving the illusion of each window being a picture for itself, the windows including the people complement each other and form a unit.
Each part of the photo helps complete the picture which conveys the impression of a social community in an easygoing and happy ambience.
Iconological phase
So far, we have a clear idea of what we can see on the photo, however, we must incorporate the context into the analysis of the picture.
The photo was part of an article uploaded by the news source “New York Times” and concerned the late-breaking covid-19, also called coronavirus.
In these difficult times where people are urged to stay at home in order to slow down the spreading of the virus, the society is filled by anxiety and uncertainty about what the future will bring us.
But particularly heavy burdens are on the shoulders of nurses and doctors all over the world. The health care system is forced to stand up to the extreme stress caused by the virus.
People working in hospitals have to work overtime and are exposed to very high pressures, yet, they bravely do their jobs and try to save as many lives as possible.
In this context, Italian citizens are “encouraging doctors and nurses from balconies in Milan.” The applause serves as a sign of respect and support for those hard working doctors being the pillar of society. And this photo is just one example of what happens in many countries strongly affected by the crisis. Although people are isolated they cheer each other up, sing together and make music together. It shows that even in times of fear the society must hold together by encouraging others and bringing joy and hope to the world.