A Final Entry on Visual Rhetoric

The thing I have enjoyed most about this blog is the opportunity it has given me to analyze images from a variety of genres. Not only did that requirement make this blog a lot more fun and interesting to write, but it also helped me stretch my analytical muscles and take a second look at some images I would not have normally looked at again. Also, since starting this blog, I feel much more aware of the images around me and the arguments they make. I have to admit, it is hard to look at an image anywhere now and not start to mentally deconstruct its visual argument.

American soldiers finish preparing the coffins of their fallen comrades ("Soldiers").

For this final entry, I chose the image of the star-spangled military coffins we looked at in class, because I feel it encapsulates much of what was talked about. At first glance, the photo seems like nothing more than a beautiful, but tragic, candid photo snapped by a journalist. As you begin to examine it, however, it becomes clear that this is not just a great photograph, but also a piece of visual rhetoric. Whatever you believe its argument to be (perhaps that soldiers are just consumable goods pushed down a conveyor belt like any other product or that all soldiers are ultimately there to serve their country regardless of sex, race, sexuality, etc.), when viewed as a piece of visual rhetoric, this photograph becomes a richly layered text and its photographer becomes the constructor of a visual argument. 

"Soldier." Photograph. Anthony David. "Our Deepest Explosions, and
              Theodore Parker." Soul Seeds. Web. 5 Dec. 2010.