VISUAL LANGUAGE GENERAL CONCEPT - PART 1

Visual Language Fluency (VLF) a term introduced by "Robert Horn", refers to "language based on tight integration of words and visual elements". It is by establishing this concept of visual language fluency (VLF) to construct an understanding of photography as a process of visual language in which elements are words, series of elements are sentences and paragraphs, and bodies of work become completed or evolving stories.

When learning a language English, French, German, Spanish, etc..., various exercises are utilized to understand grammar and syntax. There are many advantages in integrating word and image, such as, clarifying meaning, reinforcing meaning, providing focus, facilitating comparisons, providing context and visual engagement.

Visual engagement has become important because of the viewer's shortened focus spans, the average viewer attention span is down to 8 seconds. Photographs are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the viewer's brain and 90% of insights and information transmitted to the brain is "Visual".

Example is Dorothea Lange “Migrant Mother”, Nipomo, California, 1936. Dorothea Lange shot six frames in March of 1936, the day that she made the image of Florence Owens and her children that has come to be known as Migrant Mother.

"She says: I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember that she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her her name or her history. She told me her age, 32. She said they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in a lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. I was following instinct, not reason; I drove into that wet and soggy camp and parked my car like a homing pigeon."

Understanding the visual language fluency (VLF) : “Leading Lines”, “Viewpoint”, “Shapes”, “Space”, “Size”, “Color”, “Value”, “Texture”, “Balance”, “Emphasis”, “Proportion”, “Gradation”, “Contrast”, “Symmetry”, and “Pattern”, will help the photographer to “deconstruct” and “analyze visual messages”. It is important to learn how to “see” what is really there, as opposed to what they “expect to see”.

When viewer is looking at a photograph, too often a conversation starts, and unfortunately, ends with comments such as, “I like it”or "I like your style". The next question is WHY?, goes unasked and ignored by the photographer. Why photographers have difficulty speaking about their works? why they often see a photograph as a truth, an obvious fact, and therefore does not require interpretation? do they know how a photograph is constructed? is "vision" or "expression" the ultimate objective? why, they do not treat photography as a language? Why is narrative such a difficult concept for photographers to master?

Elements & Decisions

Elements are the “words - vocabularies” of the photograph, placed within the "frame"

The expression of ideas and emotions, with aesthetic qualities, in a two-dimensional visual language is demanding and difficult. The elements (words - vocabularies), of the visual language example: shapes, lines, colors, tones, and textures are used by photographers to produce sensation of volume, space, movement, and light.

Decisions are the "grammar" of the photograph. Placement of the elements within the frame.

Such as, the use of framing, perspective, point of view, balance, focus, exposure. All decisions (grammar) within the frame has "meaning", photographers must consciously and deliberately choose the elements (words - vocabularies) that go inside the frame and make the decisions of how that frame is "constructed" and "represented" to the viewers. Photographers, have absolute control over the decisions (grammar) framing process, example: placement of focal point(s), arrangement within the frame.

The most predictable basic decisions (grammar), is when the photographers place the point of interest in the middle of the frame. While this may be effective message when making photographs. The more photographers become fluent in "visual language fluency VLF", communicating their vision will improve;

1. Visual Language Fluency (VLF) - Elements (words - vocabularies) Part II
2. Visual Language Fluency (VLF) - Decision Part (grammar) Part III
3. Visual Language Fluency (VLF) -Visual engagement Part V

 References:

1. Lange, Dorothea, "The Assignment I'll Never Forget: Migrant Mother," Popular Photography (February 1960); Curtis, James. Mind's Eye, Mind's Truth: FSA Photography Reconsidered. (1989).
2. Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: Reproduction number: LC-USF34-9058-C (film negative), Caption: "Destitute peapickers in California; a 32 year old mother of seven children. February 1936." (retouched version), Location: FSA/OWI - J339168 (the original photographic print has been replaced by a copy print) (Also available on microfilm and microfiche: Microfilm LOT 344; Chadwyck-Healey Far West fiche #29:E11.)
3.  Painting - Author Peter D. Owen
4. R N Young (1992) Two dimensional landscape photography and the three dimensional landscape, Landscape Research, 17:1, 38-46, DOI: 10.1080/01426399208706357
5.  Moving toward Visual Literacy: Photography as a Language of Teacher Inquiry. Authors Mary Jane Moran & Deborah W. Tegano
6. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer in Editorial and Advertising Photography at the University of Gloucestershire, a working photographer, and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Focal Press 2014) and The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Focal Press 2015).
7.  Bonnie Skaalid: Gestalt Principles of Perception: Similiarity
8. Jill Waterman: The Importance of Focal Points in Photographic Composition
9. Photograph “Hunan Hotel” - ?MauriceSherif