Tuesday 5 April 2011

In Figure 2, the creators have completely different intentions; it is there for the sole purpose to advertise. Vogue can be, for the most part, recognised as a magazine which promotes wealthy lifestyles and costly top designer products, therefore this image in particular is a fine example of a wealthy, powerful female adorned in expensive fur, garments and standing with a horse in tow. In contrast to Figure 1, the codes and conventions of this image strongly suggest a fashion-based focus. Figure 2 highlights the ‘Semantic Code’ by Roland Barthes, the code refers to ‘connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word’. Whilst the image itself is relatively basic, horse and lady, the meaning of the image can be greatly explored and extended. The posture of the model denotes a strong sense of power, the stance of her raised chin displays confidence and her separated legs pushes a military pose. The body of the model is mostly exposed in a sexual manor, this could also relate to another issue Laura Mulvey considers to occur in the way text the text is read and sexualised. The theory argues that in examples such as advertising, the women’s body is sexualised and people are encouraged to gaze at this text even when the women’s actual body is unrelated to the product being advertised (Chandler, 2000).

No comments:

Post a Comment