This article was originally featured in the February 2015 issue of EduTATE.

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In the June 2014 EduTATE I shared a piece about a unit that I wrote for Year 10 students titled ‘A Picture Tells 1000 words’. The unit culminates in students writing an informative 1000 word essay about a chosen image, its context, meaning and what makes it so powerful. The following teaching idea could be used in the lead up to such a unit as a way of explicitly teaching visual analysis, or as a standalone sequence. There is no shortage of rich visual texts that can be used in the English classroom to assist students with exploring visual analysis. Students can be asked to describe the visual feature, name the visual technique and discuss the meaning conveyed. As always, it is recommended that a scaffolded gradual release approach would be used first to model the skills and processes of visual analysis, leading to co-constructing meaning with students to assist them to become familiar with the language and processes of visual analysis.

A wonderful resource by Canadian photographer Dina Goldstein that has been in circulation for a few years now, is the Fallen Princesses series of photographs as part of her tableau images series. Fairy tales would have you believe that every princess has a happy ending, but Goldstein takes a satirical look at the next chapter in the lives of these princesses. The collection can be viewed on Goldstein’s official website: http://dinagoldstein.com/fallen-princesses/.

Goldstein depicts Snow White, Jasmine, Pocahontas and other iconic princesses succumbing to tragic fates including cancer, alcoholism and unhappy marriages. The images move away from the stereotypical ideas we grew up reading about and viewing. As Goldstein justifies, 'My Fallen Princesses series was born out of deep personal pain, when I raged against the "happily ever after" motif we are spoon fed since childhood.’

For Goldstein’s image ‘Snowy (2008)’ pictured above, students can be asked to identify two visual techniques that have been used to convey how Snow White and Prince Charming feel about their situation:

• How has parody been used in this image?
• How do students personally feel about this image?

Such a task would tie in beautifully with the Year 8 content descriptor: Identify and evaluate devices that create tone, for example humour, wordplay, innuendo and parody in poetry, humorous prose, drama or visual texts (ACELT1630)

This idea can be taken a little deeper to explore what the author is aiming to convey through the representation of characters in a number of the images. Explorations of intertextuality and a variety of techniques in more complex ways would enable such an activity to tie in with the following Year 9 and 10 curriculum content.

Year 9:
Analyse how the construction and interpretation of texts, including media texts, can be influenced by cultural perspectives and other texts (ACELY1739)
Explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts (ACELY1745)

Year 10:
Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/or visual choices (ACELY1749)
Evaluate the impact on audiences of different choices in the representation of still and moving images (ACELA1572)
Evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in texts (ACELT1812)

Packed with symbolism and avenues for contextual analysis, Goldstein’s image ‘The Little Mermaid’ depicts Ariel in a giant aqua tank on public display. Such an image draw parallels to animal cruelty. In another image Beauty and the Beast’s Belle is depicted going under the knife for a series of plastic surgeries. Seemingly unhappy with the way that she looks, this would lead to some great discussions on the definitions of beauty, the growth of cosmetic surgery and quick surgical fixes, addiction and so forth. Older students can evaluate the social, moral and ethical positions represented in these texts through critical analysis and use different modes to share their understanding.

When analysing visual images, these are some of the ideas that can be explored:

1. Personal Response: How the reader/ viewer responds to the image. How do you feel? What does the image remind you of? What is the author conveying in the image about the subject, times, theme etc..
2. Visual Techniques: Framing or composition, salience (the dominant image and how this draws our attention), gaze, vectors (the lines that draw us towards a particular image), angles (high, low, eye level, canting), shot (close up, mid/medium or long distance shots; bird’s eye view; two-point shots), colour and lighting (e.g. saturation, chiaroscuro, dramatic use of light and dark shadowing) contrast, symbolism and icons, text (bold, font, size, placement, colour etc..)
3. Body Language: facial expression, gestures, posture, position of body or hands, proximity to others, gaze (demanding our attention or looking out beyond the frame?)
4. Context: How was the image received? How does it reflect the times (historical, cultural, political, social, responder’s context)? How do these considerations impact on meaning?
5. Critical response: How could this image be read? Gaps and silences, manipulation of the image, positioning of the reader etc.

References

Australiancurriculum.edu.au, (2015). English - The Australian Curriculum v7.3. [online] Available at: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english [Accessed 11 Jan. 2015].

Dina Goldstein, (2015). Fallen Princesses. [online] Available at: http://dinagoldstein.com/fallen-princesses/ [Accessed 20 Jan. 2015].

Mail Online, (2013). Snow White's failed marriage, an alcoholic Cinderella and an obese Red Riding Hood: Cynical photo series shows Disney princesses living unhappily ever after. [online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2385475/Dina-Goldsteins-Fallen-Princesses-shows-Disneys-Snow-White-Cinderella-unhappily-after.html [Accessed 12 Jan. 2015].