Introduction to Visual Analysis

Introduction to Visual Analysis

What techniques does the artist use to communicate his or her message?

What techniques does the artist use to communicate his or her message?

• Perspective• Emphasis• Movement• Proportion

• Perspective• Emphasis• Movement• Proportion

War Relocation Program

After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, fear of a Japanese invasion and subversive acts by Japanese-Americans prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. The act designated the West Coast as a military zone from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Although not specified in the order, Japanese-Americans were singled out for evacuation. More than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes in California, southern Arizona, and western Washington and Oregon and sent to ten relocation camps. Those forcibly removed from their homes, businesses, and possessions included Japanese immigrants legally forbidden from becoming citizens (Issei), the American-born (Nisei), and children of the American-born (Sansei).

In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II.

Perspective

EmphasisEmphasis• What do you think Ansel

Adams emphasized?• What is large in the

picture? • What is small? • What do you think was

important to the photographer?

• Does anything in this picture have a sense of movement?

• What do you think Ansel Adams emphasized?

• What is large in the picture?

• What is small? • What do you think was

important to the photographer?

• Does anything in this picture have a sense of movement?

Ansel Adams’ photo shows editor Roy Takeno reading a copy of the Manzanar Free Press in front of the newspaper office at the Manzanar War Relocation Center; with mountains in the background.

What statement do you think Mr. Adams is making by the arrangement of objects and people in this photograph? Think about emphasis.

What do you think about the sign above Mr. Takeno?

What questions does this photo raise?

The taking of the city of Washington in AmericaThe taking of the city of Washington in America

• View from the Potomac River, of Washington, D.C. under attack by British forces under Major General Ross, August 24, 1814.

• View from the Potomac River, of Washington, D.C. under attack by British forces under Major General Ross, August 24, 1814.

Movement

How does the use of

movement make you feel as a viewer?

This lesson courtesy of: Library of Congress, The Evolution of the Book: Introducing Students to Visual Analysis

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/book/procedure.html