Blog #6

Can visuals make arguments? How do visuals make arguments? Give an example.

Visuals can make all kinds of arguments, most commonly to our emotions. The entire point of a visual image is to emotionally contact and touch the emotional sides of a viewer so that they will remember that image and what it represents. One of the most influential and emotional pictures in history is the photo of the Tiananmen Square Man. In this picture in specific the message is making a strong political standpoint. The photo of the anonymous man became very powerful and famous because he was simply standing in front of a column of tanks on an empty street with his shopping bag. The man became known as the ‘Tank Man’ or the ‘Unknown Rebel’. The image is making an argument that the chaos of war and fighting is ridiculous and there are so many innocent people affected all over the world. Because it is so obvious as to what the image is portraying the argument becomes even clearer and more influential. Yet besides the fact of an obvious image there are also images all over the world that do not have reference to anything we know in our culture. For an image to make an argument it should apply to the knowledge of a wide range of people. The image I have chosen has the ability to do that because anyone around the world can look at it and get the point, but an image that shows something that applies to only one culture, there ends up being a wide range of people around the world that have no connection or emotion to remember the image. Overall though visual can and do make arguments through the specific objects and images within the visuals.