Visual Rhetoric: A

Field Guide
The Compass Lab at
Saint Louis University
 Visual Rhetoric:
A Field Guide
Colten Biro
Sheila Coursey
Sydney Lindsey
Simone Sparks
Lauren Terbrock-Elmstad

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License

[Link]

The cover image is taken from Johann Zhan's 1685 work Oculus Artificialis
Teledioptricus Sive Telescopium (The Long-Distance Artificial Eye, or
Telescope)
 04.
A Gateway to this Guide 1 Photography 40
Table of Contents

01. 05.
Visual Rhetoric: An Introduction 9 Case Study: Dispersion 61
to Making Meaning Visually

02.
Infographics 18

03.
Rhetoric in Film 30
 A Gateway to this
Guide
FIGURE 1
S H E I L A CO U R S E Y, P H . D
D I R E C TO R O F T H E CO M PA S S L A B

In her book New Mythologies in Design, Rebecca Houze examines two arches that might be particularly familiar to SLU
students, placed as they are on either side of north campus. The first is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial or
Gateway Arch, the inverted steel catenary arch that serves as a hallmark of the St. Louis skyline (see fig. 1). The Gateway
Arch, designed in 1947, commemorates the 1804 westward journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to survey the
lands that would be acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. The second instance, more inconspicuously placed on Lindell
Boulevard, is the omnipresent McDonald's sign, the two yellow parabolic arches that form the letter “M” that was adapted
from the structure of the 1952 McDonald’s restaurant in Pheonix, Arizona (see fig. 2).

The arch, Houze argues, serves as one example of a symbol within our contemporary visual landscape that is “central to
our imaginative lives and the construction of our identities” and yet is rendered near-invisible through its ubiquity (1).
Examining the design mythology of the arch involves asking questions about choices in construction or dissemination
(Why that shape? Why gold?) as well as exploring the cultural meaning of a symbol that has changed over time (Houze, FIGURE 2
3-4). In the case of the arch, Houze explores the history of the arch in mid-twentieth century America: the shape of the
arch, and its neoclassical association with triumph or imperialism; the minimalist, catenary design that spoke to the
desire for speed, from the rise of fast food to the development of the American highway system; the purpose of the arch
as a gateway or doorway to another location or land of promise (32-46). These seemingly simple design choices hide a
“complex web of referents” that have contributed and continue to contribute to our understanding of American history This spirit of experimentation is central to the history of the Compass Lab, which opened in 1999 as the Computer Assisted
and identity (32). Instruction Lab. As a media lab, we work with Writing Program courses to faciliate all forms of multimodal composition,
from concept mapping with markers and paper to aerial mapping with drones. Our campus studio space in Des Peres
I offer Houze’s reading of the two arches both to give a local example of exploring visual culture and because this open- 216 includes a recording studio, a media bar, a mini maker space, and desktop computer stations for students to work
ing section of Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide serves as its own gateway into the rest of the guide. While other chapters on long-term projects. The Lab loans equipment to writing program students, holds workshops on particular skills or
will delve into categories and genres of visual rhetoric, this section briefly explains what the Compass Lab does and why resources, and works with instructors to design course activities and assignments. Our mission is not just to assist stu-
we decided to design this public-facing pedagogical resource. dents in designing multimodal projects but also to demonstrate how the process of engaging with multimodal com-
position helps us conceptualize the act of writing writ large. In the words of Walter J. Ong, technologies of writing are
Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide was designed for use in Writing Program courses at Saint Louis University by current or for-
not “mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness” (32). Just as the advent of written communi-
mer Writing Program instructors. Throughout the chapters of this guide, you will find references to assignments or activi-
cation served as a disruption of oral cultures, so too have emerging forms of visual communication transformed how
ties specific to the SLU Writing Program curriculum, particularly our core requirement English 1900: Advanced Strategies
we structure and communicate thought.
of Rhetoric and Research. In this course, students identify, create, research, and design a rhetorical project that addresses
an issue of the student’s choice and ultimately participates in public discourse around that issue. This rhetorical proj-
As Writing Program courses like English 1900 incorporated additional engagement with visual literacy as part of the
ect emerges in different forms through several scaffolded assignments: The Dissoi Logoi, the Statement of Purpose, the
new Core Curriculum, the Compass Lab sought to offer resources to students and instructors who might be engaging
Multimodal Project, and the Evaluation Essay. This structure of interlocked assignments seeks to reconceive writing “as
with different forms of visual rhetoric for the first time. Over the summer and fall of 2022, the contributors to this guide
the laboratory in which thinking occurs rather than the delivery system of the results of thinking” (Hardin Marshall and
discussed what we would find helpful when designing lessons on visual rhetoric in our Writing Program classes: key
Lynch, 83). In other words, the process of revision and remediation allows students to write their way into an understand-
terms, case studies, suggestions for additional reading, or reminders of resources offered by the Lab.
ing of an issue.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide A Gateway to This Guide

1 2
 U N PA C K I N G T H E U N FA M I L I A R / D E FA M I L I A R I Z I N G T H E E V E R Y D AY

One of our goals for this guide was to offer multimod-

al lexicons that helped students identify and name

Why a Field Guide?

different techniques or categories within visual
rhetoric. Once you can identify the difference
between a jump cut and a match cut, or a portrait
versus a still-life photograph, you can start thinking
counterfactually. Why did an author, designer,
editor, or director choose to do this and not that?
What message or impact were they trying to impart to
their imagined audience? Rhetorical analysis begins
by thinking about a composition not as a unified,
polished object but rather as a series of interlocking
choices.

Some areas of multimodal composition might seem

A field guide traditionally seeks to help the reader identify and distinguish between intimidatingly opaque. For example, students who
different objects while out 'in the world,' broadly conceived. Field guides are an have never edited audio tracks before might find the
visual layout of audio recording/editing tools like Other areas of multimodal composition might seem
inherently multimodal genre, since the act of identification and discernment so extremely obvious or second nature. Informal or quotid-
Audacity or Garageband alien in comparison to more
often requires different combinations of senses and literacies. You can tell the dif- familiar word processing software. Layering, merging, ian communication genres like text messages, selfies, or
ference between a Death Cap Mushroom and a Button Mushroom by sight, smell, and clipping audio tracks offer a very different visual social media posts are often considered basic or trans-
and taste, though I highly recommend that you do not try the last one! Consider the experience of the composition process in parent because students have developed those literacies
comparison to drafting a taxonomic outline in informally. We tend to notice the complexity of these
1754 book Poisons, Ecrevisses et Crabes (fig. 4), which is one of the earliest known
Microsoft Word. rhetorical decisions only when they are confusing or alien
color publications about fish. The detailed engravings of fish and other marine life to others. Consider the miscommunication that can occur
displace and disperse the text of the book in representing tropical fish of the East from different punctuation practices in text messages (is
However, once students become more comfortable
Indies (“Images from the First Colour Publication on Fish”). Interestingly, the text with the process, these new forms of multimodal ending a text message with a period a sign of anger?).
organized around these drawings contains both anecdotal information about the planning offer new paradigms for organizing compo- You may have had awkward conversations with family
behavioral patterns of particular fish as well as suggested recipes, which tells us sition. For example, layering tracks on dual axes forces members explaining that no, that emoji does not signify
students to consider what is implicit versus explicit; what they think it means
something about the purpose and imagined audience of the book.
selecting audio tracks for the “bed” or background to
a spoken track influences the tone of the track while To borrow a parable from David Foster Wallace’s 2005
While many field guides focus on regional flora and fauna, there are field guides Kenyon commencement address: “There are these two
a “bridge” offers a transition between two segments
that examine all sorts of objects, concepts, organizations, or phenomena (my that serve as different units of narration. Composing young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an
favorite examples include ‘boxes,’‘the police,’ and ‘climate anxiety’). These guides an outline that looks more like an Audacity project older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them
help their readers establish a common lexicon, but also focus on the process and might include a layered or color-coded plan that and says ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two
considers authorial intent and execution, what is young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of
purpose of identification or becoming literate. For example, Poisons, Ecrevisses
implied versus what is explicit, and a representation of them looks over at the other and goes ‘What the hell is
et Crabes seems to be motivated by naturalistic and culinary curiosity, but the water?’” (3-4). Sometimes, exploring multimodal compo-
transitions as bridges.
book is also directly connected to Dutch colonialism in Indonesia and the field sition is defamiliarizing the water that you swim in on a
guide or survey as a tool of dominion. Likewise, in Chapter 3 of this guide, Sydney Lindsey day-to-day basis.
breaks a scene from the TV show Stranger Things into
This focus on process is particularly relevant for Writing Program students, who will a shot-by-shot analysis arranged like a storyboard, To give an example, many of my English 1900 students,
a common planning tool for visual projects. Lindsey when embarking on the visual design of a project,
analyze and compose multimodal texts. For example, students in English 1900 are
uses the storyboard as a tool for identifying and ex- mention that they want this object to look “professional.”
asked to rhetorically analyze a range of multimodal texts, from ad campaigns to I ask them: what is professional? What choices in tone,
plaining different types of shots or cuts, establishing
photography series to video essays. In order to understand the rhetorical choices font, space, color, and image denote professionalism?
key terms in the lexicon of film rhetoric. A storyboard
of each of these texts, students must learn the lexicons relevant to each medium/ offers a template for planning a project in which the What choices do they consider markers of unprofession-
genre. However, near the end of the semester, students will also plan and com- unit of argumentation might not be the paragraph! alism? Why do we, actually, disdain Comic Sans so much?
pose a multimodal project of their own, an endeavor that may require new or addi- Indeed, each block of the storyboard might contain Unpacking and describing these subconscious rhetorical
interlocking multimodal choices, such as the combi- decisions helps demonstrate that these quotidian choices
tional tools. Throughout the different sections of this guide, our authors primarily
nation of music and voiceover audio, or a still image have complex histories and stakes.
focused on offering readers the tools to analyze each genre or medium. However,
and a caption.
our attention to process in each chapter also anticipates that students will turn to
FIGURE 3
consider their own processes as authors of multimodal projects.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide A Gateway to This Guide 4

3
 CHAPTERS
Each of the chapters in this guide was authored by current or former Writing Program instructors at SLU; while compos-

+
ing this guide, we discussed the information and resources that we would appreciate using in the classroom, particularly
when teaching genres/media outside of our area of expertise.

In Chapter 1, "Visual Rhetoric: An Introduction to Making Meaning Via Visuals," Colten Biro introduces the organizing cat-
egories of visual literacy and visual rhetoric, walking the reader through the physical and intellectual work of translating
visual objects into meaning. Biro turns to an early modern plague broadside in order to explore how we might practice
reading visual texts with a document that undercuts our contemporary expectations about the organization of images,

The Structure
text, and space on a page. In Chapter 2, "Infographics," Lauren Terbrock-Elmstad explores the history of infographics as a
cultural tool for visually encoding, preserving, and distributing information. She explores the priorities, approaches, meth-
ods, and elements of different infographics while offering a mini-case study on W.E.B. Dubois' infographics on the lives
of Black Americans for the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. In Chapter 3, "Rhetoric in Film," Sydney Lindsey turns to the popular

of this Guide
sci-fi television series Stranger Things and the much-discussed scene of Max's flight from Vecna to Kate Bush's "Running
Up That Hill." Lindsey explores why this scene made such waves in June 2022, breaking down the various choices in shot
type, camera angle, lighting, and editing to explore how rhetorical choices in film achieve particular effects on their audi-
ence. In Chapter 4, "Photography," Simone Sparks examines photography as "writing with light" in order to consider "pho-
tography's medium-specific practices as practices of rhetorical persuasion." Sparks models close reading with a range of
still life photographs before turning to a consideration of various compositional processes of photography (post-process,
concurrent process, reflexive process) that lead each offered example to particular design choices and interventions.
As you might be able to tell, this isn't quite a textbook! The Compass
Lab designed this guide to act as a supplementary resource to our
Writing Program textbook. As such, our chapters can serve as both
external readings that students might be assigned and prompts for
CASE STUDIES
in-class activities and discussions. Here is a breakdown of the different
sections of this guide: In addition to each of our genre-specific chapters, this guide contains a section for larger case studies that offer sustained
engagement with visual objects of analysis. Our first case study, "Dispersion," features a portrait series designed, shot and

+
edted by Simone Sparks during Pride Month 2022. In this case study, Sparks discusses the process of designing and imple-
menting this project, considering how a Dissoi Logoi that preceded their portrait series might have approached the ongo-
ing discussion about 'rainbow capitalism' and the future of the rainbow in the LGBTQ+ community. As the Lab continues to
work with the new Core, we hope to continue adding case studies to this section of the guide to show how original research
and/or creative endeavors might offer case studies for visual rhetoric that model intervention in an ongoing discussion.

FURTHER READING/RESOURCES
Each chapter and case study contains a list of further readings designed for both students and instructors. Some of these
further readings serve as suggestions for assigned course readings for instructors looking to focus on particular genres or
media within visual rhetoric. Other suggestions are manuals or guides to help students as they are embarking on the plan-
ning and design of their own multimodal projects. Many of the suggested further readings are available in physical copies
in the Lab's mini-library in Des Peres 216. These books are available for 24-hour checkout by both students and instructors.
The list of further resources highlight particular apps, software, or websites that serve as tools for multimedia composition.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide A Gateway to This Guide

6
5
 Additional Works Cited/ +
Resources Figures
Works Cited Figures:
Hardin Marshall, Laura, and Paul Figure 1: Gateway Arch in St. Louis,
Lynch. "English 1900: A Writing Missouri
(And Writing Program) Laboratory." Figure 2: McDonald's Exterior Golden
Composition Studies 48.3 (2020): Arches Sign and Trademark Logo
83–102 Figure 3: Louis Renard, Poissons,
The Compass Lab The SLU Writing Program Ecrevisses et Crabes (1754)
Houze, Rebecca. New Mythologies in
Website Website Design and Culture: Reading Signs
www. [Link] [Link] and Symbols in the Visual Landscape.
Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2016.
The Compass Lab website includes a full inventory The SLU Writing Program Website contains sample
of our equipment, introductory guides and videos, syllabi, assignment prompts, recommended read- “Images from the First Colour
a student request form for new equpment, and a ings and curriculum expectations for WP instruc- Publication on Fish (1754).” The Public
booking page for our recording studio. tors . Domain Review. [Link]
[Link]/collection/images-
from-the-first-colour-publication-on-
fish-1754/.

Ong, Walter J. "Writing is a Technology

that Restructures Thought. In Thhe
Written Word: Literacy in Transition,
edited by Gerd Baumann, Oxford
University Press, 1986, pp.23-50.

The Compass Lab Email The Compass Lab Podcast Wallace, David Foster. This is Water:
slucompasslab@[Link] [Link] Some Thoughts, Delivered on a
Significant Occasion, about Living
Students and instructors are encouraged to email a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown,
Our podcast Eloquentia Perfecta Ex Machina inter-
the Compass Lab with any questions, requests, or 2009.
suggestions. views writing program instructors about how
and why they use multimodal approaches in the
classroom.

7 Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide A Gateway to This Guide 8

 Chapter 1: Visual Rhetoric:
An Introduction to Making
Meaning Via Visuals
Colten Biro, M.A. Eng., P&L

I. Making Meaning: Follow Your Eyes

What does it mean to “read” images and visuals? lion that is “loose” on campus and one that is “not loose”
on campus. But even beyond the complex neurological pro-
This chapter will introduce visual literacy, visual rhetoric, cesses occurring that help you determine meaning as you
and the elements of design and presentation that are used read, your eyes are doing quite a lot.
in effective visual communication. While some of the ter-
minology within the chapter may be technical, the process Studies on the movement of the human eye while reading
itself is something that you do thousands of times per day reveal that your eyes do not actually move straight left-to-
without realizing it. When you open a social media app on right or perfectly through a line of text. In fact, while they
your phone, when you drive past road signs on the way to generally move in that direction at different speeds, they
the grocery store, when you stream your favorite show… all also jump backwards and forwards to view letters and words.
of these are moments in which you turn complex visual infor- While your eyes move in this complex dance essentially for-
mation into meaning. Effectively, you are reading these visual ward through the words on the page, your brain must cipher
texts. This is both a physical and internal process—your eyes through the complex visual components—turning those
see the visual elements and then your brain makes sense strange symbols on a page into recognized letters, words,
of those complicated components. To simplify this, think phrases, sentences… and ultimately into comprehended
about the practice of reading that you are doing right now. meaning. This example of reading provides some scaffold-
ing as you think about how visual texts create meaning and
As you read these words, there is a complex process which how we read meaning from those visuals:
is occurring both physically and intellectually. Your eyes are • Like the letters and words on the page, visual elements
physically moving across the letters in a semi-linear pattern combine to create meaning.
from left to right, from the top of the page to the bottom. • Similar to the way your eyes scan through the letters
As your eyes move, your brain uses your internalized gram- and words to read the page, your eyes also scan through
mar rules to recall and decode the groups of letters to form visual components such as images to read meaning
words—and then to sort through each word’s meaning. Of from visual texts.
course, the meaning of those words changes with the con- • Like the example of “loose” versus “not loose” when
text of the words around them: think about the difference talking about a lion on campus, any single visual element
between “loose” and “not loose”—the inclusion of the neg- in a medium relies upon the other visual elements to
ative qualifying word preceding “loose” changes the entire provide a contextual meaning. It is not merely a single
way you read the meaning of the phrase or sentence. For visual element within a visual text that requires mean-
example, there is a very significant difference between a ing of the visual text.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Making Meaning Via Visuals

9
 • Similar to the invisible grammar rules you have have gathered from your textbook Eloquentia Perfecta
internalized that help you turn letters into words such as ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos to engage criti-
and ultimately into meaning, visual texts have his- cally with the visual text to determine the effectiveness,
torical, cultural, and social contexts which act as influence, or persuasive force.
invisible influences on how you read and under-
stand a visual text. Your rhetorical exploration of visual texts relies upon ques-
• While reading English words on a page you have tions that you should find very familiar, echoing that general
been trained to read left to right and top to bot- rhetorical analysis you are practicing this semester and apply-
tom, there are elements of design and presenta- ing those questions specifically to visual texts: What do you
tion that can change the order in which you read see? What is the visual text, and what elements combine to
a visual text by directing your eyes to an area of make that text? Who is the visual text’s audience, and does
focus within the visual text. it effectively communicate to that desired audience? Is there
a particular context such as a historical, social, or cultural
Fundamentally, this scaffolding asks you to consider backdrop that affects how we view the visual text? What is
1) what is happening with your eyes—what and how do the visual text communicating—what does it mean? What is
you see the visual text, and 2) what meaning-making the purpose of the visual text? Is that visual text effective at
is occurring via the presentation and arrangement of communicating its desired purpose?
the images, typography, and visual elements.
The rest of this chapter is divided into two more sections.
Before going any further, it is important to clarify a few In the next section, we will explore one of the “Lord Have
terms which will be used throughout the chapters and Mercy” broadsides from the outbreak of the Plague in London
case studies: in 1665 as a model for a rhetorical analysis of a visual text.
Then, the final section of the chapter will provide a list of
• Visual Text: This is a broad term which encom- visual elements with a brief description and several guiding
passes paintings, advertisements, infographics, considerations to help you contemplate how specific ele-
posters, photographs, memes, films, etc. Perhaps ments might affect the audience’s encounter with the text,
the simplest of definitions recognizes this text as either directing the experience of the eye or making mean-
one which utilizes any sort of visual media to com- ing with the visual associations and design.
municate. These visual texts should be understood
as composite—as a combination of various ele- II. Reading Meaning: Visual Texts & Their Meanings
ments and signifiers that create meaning.
• Visual Elements: When you break down a visual As an example of how you might read and rhetorically ana-
text, you encounter its elements—the individual lyze a visual text, we will explore a 1665 broadside from an
pieces or building blocks. You can think of a visual outbreak of the plague in London. While the history of these
element as any single aspect of the visual that you documents is fascinating—and strangely resonate with recent
can see. This includes elements of design such as history—for our purposes it is worth noting a basic background.
line, color, and shape, but it also includes any visual The “Lord Have Mercy” broadsides (or “Lord Have Mercies”)
image, icon, or even the typography that appears are a small subset of the larger broadside tradition; they were
within the visual text. relatively cheap, costing generally about a penny which meant
• Visual Literacy: In the same way that you are read- that they could be purchased for display and for individual
ing these words on this page, visual literacy sup- consumption. The Lord Have Mercy broadsides receive their
poses that you can read a visual. Think of visual lit- name from the frequent title of these documents, but they
eracy as the ability to identify, interpret, and make also represent a stylized accounting of the ravages of the
meaning from images and visuals. plague in London, with the 1665 outbreak from this broadside
• Visual Rhetoric: This is the critical analysis of a being perhaps the worst. Lord Have Mercies generally have
visual text, including its structure, meaning, and several types of content included on the page: some historical
ability to persuade or influence. Visual rhetoric accounting of previous plagues outbreaks (sometimes even
uses those classical rhetorical terms and tools you positioning these in the context of Biblical plagues), plague 1665 Lord Have Mercy broadside, courtesy of Guildhall Library

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Making Meaning Via Visuals 11

10
 “remedies” and medicinal advice, usually a woodcut to a part (or whole) of the visual text, and on places of har- of death pair effectively with that center woodcut to evoke
illustration, and the weekly death statistics recounting After your eyes moved from the borders, they likely moved mony/unity—where different visual elements work together fear and passion within the viewer—visually attempting to
the city’s official bills of mortality divvied up by local par- to the top of the page where the Lord Have Mercies get in some way. Fundamentally though, we have focused on stir the pathos of the audience. The “LORD HAVE MERCY
ish. The broadside we will be exploring was printed in their name. “LONDONS” sits in a powerful visual position the visual; using our analogy from the first section of the UPON US” and the rest of the typography at the top of the
early July 1665 and provided empty space in the bottom, because it is written in all capitals and centered along the chapter, you have been doing the “physical” part of read- page build upon that pathos by using ethos or credibility to
right-hand column for the owner themself to continue implied line which continues the black border framing the ing a visual text where your eyes are moving over the text further move the audience by recalling both the historical
adding to the printed list of deaths. While we will close top of the page. In terms of scale, it is the largest text on the gathering information. If the first step of a rhetorical anal- plague deaths in London and the Biblical plagues—while
this section briefly talking about what we might gleam page—larger even than the title below it. The phrasing here ysis of a visual text is always to ask yourself what you see, also leaning upon the connotations of the number seven:
from the marginalia and hand-notated deaths, our rhe- is fascinating, as “Londons” could have two meanings. In the the second step is to make sense of how the arrangement, the “Seven Modern Plagues or Visitations” with “The sev-
torical analysis will explore how this visual text might first, it signifies that this broadside accounts for the deaths emphasis, and content come together into a particular mes- enth this present year, 1665.”
have been read by its intended audience in 1665. To start within the city of London; in the second, it might instead sage designed to influence or persuade a particular audience
that analysis, we begin with a simple set of questions: be a direct address to the intended audience of Londoners. in a particular context. Stated otherwise, the second half of The visual text’s arrangement into cells is also worth recog-
Either way, the morbid black border and the woodcut illus- the rhetorical analysis asks you to use those visual elements nizing. Each of the plague visitations to London possesses
What do you see? Where are your eyes pulled? tration with the personification of death watching over the and their relation to one another to determine the purpose its own “cell”—it is purposely spaced to be contained. While
Most likely, your eye has been drawn to the central graveyard cooperate with the central text of “LONDONS” of the visual text. To help you decipher the meaning of the this is a technical reflection of the typesetter, the arrange-
woodcut in the upper middle of the page. This image has (and what follows) to evoke a pathos within the viewer, as text, here are a few questions to ask yourself: ment mirrors the act of quarantine. Looking closely at those
their home is ravaged by the plague. numbers and figures, one sees the broadside’s use of death
the most visual weight, the most visual force exerted upon How does what you see make meaning? statistics as evidence. The importance of these numbers can
your eyes. This woodcut stands out—it has been emphasized Continuing with the typography at the top of the page, you How do the visual elements fit together? be evident from their spacing; the cells contain these num-
by its placement on the upper third of the page, by the level see “LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US” in a slightly smaller How does the arrangement create emphasis and/or draw bers, but it also creates more negative space surrounding
of texture and intricacy that contrasts with the majority of type than the LONDONS above. While this phrase appears your attention towards a particular reading of the visual text? the numbers than say within the prayer which occupies the
the visual text, and by the framing of the two black borders on many broadsides and is where the Lord Have Mercies center of the page. Just over half of the broadside is occu-
on either side of the broadside which meet with an implied get their name, the phrase is important as it builds upon the In the first part of this section, we discussed how the wood- pied by these numbers as the creators use logos as a rhe-
line framing the three sides of the broadside. Those black themes we have begun to unravel. Interestingly, the long cut has the most visual weight on the broadside, drawing torical appeal to support their argument. Interestingly, the
borders arguably also create an implied line that, in fact, title here fits with the broadside genre itself. Though the your eyes towards the center of the page. The woodcut clean, well-spaced cells filled with numbers draw the eye
points to the woodcut’s position, further drawing the eye’s document claims to be “A true Relation” of the plague and depicts a victorious “death” (the skeleton) with its arms out- again towards the center of the page because of the con-
attention. The woodcut itself is placed within a central cell similar “Visitations,” the division of the plague outbreaks into stretched over both London and the people burying their trast where the visual weight of the fervorino prayer exerts
with several pieces of content: text to the left of the wood- seven—mirroring further Biblical connotations of plagues— loved ones. That personification of death stands with its more force upon the eye with its concentration of type and
cut describes a medicinal drink to stave off infection and the signals the religious underpinning within the tone of the back facing the viewer and its face towards the Londoners black ink. Everything visually pulls you towards the center and
plague, and the text below which offers a fervorino prayer— visual text. One of the last things your eyes might dwell burying their dead; behind that level of depth, lies the city towards the prayer and central argument of the visual text.
an exhortation for religious conversion and repentance. upon, because it is likely the least emphasized in terms of itself. In the far background of the woodcut, we see larger
Before returning to this central cell though, let us continue visual weight, is the lists of deaths that occupy most of the buildings with crosses upon their steeples—reminding the The center cell of the visual text that contains the woodcut
following your eyes to read this visual text. page. Curiously, those “Seven modern Plagues or Visitations viewer both of the churches’ central role in counting the also includes text on the left-hand side as well as the large
in London” are fully recounted on most of the document deaths from the plague and of the religious connotations chunk of type divided into two columns. These two columns
After the central woodcut, your eyes may have been drawn in a clean, roman typeface. These plague statistics include of the document as a whole. Further back (at the very top provide an accounting of the ways in which God has sent
to the black border on three sides of the page. That thick year, month, total deaths, and the deaths by plague num- of the image) in the image, high above the city of London, plagues, bad crops, and insects to punish “stubborn England”
border contains quite a bit of black ink, which in contrast to bers. The recounting of the plagues statistics begins with there is an angel with wings outspread in what looks like a for its sinful ways on the left side; the column on the right
the generally lighter coloration (or value) of the page pulls the upper left-hand column and moves right to be below cloud-icon of heaven. In the angel’s right hand (on the left doubles as both a prayer and a call-to-action, specifically a
the eye to these as a foci of importance. The two borders the prayer and woodcut, and then resumes at the two far side facing us) the angel holds a sword, and curiously that call to repentance: “Return, return, unto thy loving Father.”
contain artistic, designed images of death: skulls, skeletons, right columns. Each year is separated by a thin line, creat- sword is held by a disembodied hand. Why might the hand That opening refrain lies on a central axis that is the major
crossed bones, shovels, pickaxes, several coffins, and even ing a miniaturized cell format—and perhaps mirroring the be holding the angel’s sword? Is the hand holding back the emphasis point of the visual text, an implied line directly
a body bag. These morbid icons build upon the dark tone quarantines associated with plague outbreaks. angel’s defeat of the plague and death? Perhaps that is one linking this “Return, return”, to the personified image of
of the woodcut which has a skeleton with a spear oversee- way in which to understand the direct, implied line between death in the woodcut above, to the sword held by the hand
ing the burial of bodies just outside of London. These black Up until this point in the rhetorical analysis, we have simply the sword and the skeleton, though it could also be read of God above that, to “MERCY” and the center line of the
borders work with the central woodcut—and the general been following where our eyes are drawn on the visual text. as the angel being held back from swinging its sword down largest typography “LONDONS.” Lines are import in visual
typography of the page—to create a unity, where the indi- Our conversation has focused on places of emphasis—where upon the city of London. Either way, the “LORD HAVE MERCY rhetoric for the connections that they draw conceptually,
vidual visual elements work in harmony with one another the visual text draws the attention of your eyes, on places UPON US” signals that there is some sort of invocation to the and in this case, we have several visual elements running in
to present a serious tone concerning the deaths in London. of contrast—where a visual element stands out in relation divine to stop the plague. The black borders with the icons a near perfectly straight implied line towards a call to action

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Making Meaning Via Visuals 13

12
 for repentance. Importantly, that line we have just identified engage with visual texts. Throughout your use of visual rhet- Shape: Shapes are created when a line connects back to itself ornate, angular typeface of the original Gutenberg Bible) with
lies on the major visual emphasis points of the visual text, oric, it is helpful to remember the two scaffolding questions to produce a closed object; these familiar objects include a cursive typeface which is connected via flowing lines and
with death-in-numbers and images of death and burial in a that this chapter has discussed: 1) what is happening with triangles, circles, squares, stars, and more complex designs. flourishes; the two types of lettering carry with them entirely
black border all surrounding that central point of emphasis, your eyes—what and how do you see the visual text, and Shapes can help provide space in visual texts, or they can be different moods and are appropriate for very different rhe-
ultimately reaffirming the significance of that central cell. If 2) what meaning-making is occurring via the presentation used to create icons and complicated illustrations. Shapes torical situations.
this visual text continues to point you towards that center, and arrangement of the images, typography, and visual ele- not only can be used to create visually appealing texts, but
that is where you should look for meaning—and that move- ments. To assist you in your analysis of visuals, the following they can be used in visual rhetoric to elicit a connection to Size & Scale: While size refers to the physical dimensions of
ment towards the center is useful for you as you disentangle list provides brief definitions of visual elements (sometimes concepts—think about all the connotations and connections the object, scale is a comparative consideration. When you
the purpose of the text. Though a more thorough rhetorical referred to as design elements) and different considerations which happen when a visual text uses the Christian symbol describe the scale of an object in visual rhetoric, you are
analysis should include more close critical examination of for how these various elements have a rhetorical effect within of a cross, the political symbol of an elephant, or the outline describing its size in relation to something else. For exam-
the typography and message of the center cell, for the pur- the whole visual text. Remember visual texts are composite of the clocktower on SLU’s campus. ple, imagine an anti-bullying poster where two elementary
poses of our brief example here, we can begin to decipher texts—made up of all the individual elements, but also pay school children face each other with the bully towering over
the purpose of the visual text: the purpose of the broadside special attention to where and how these elements move Space: The distance (or closeness) between visual elements the smaller child. As you view the poster, the physical scale
is to communicate the seriousness of plague and to call for the eye of the audience as they produce meaning. Often, the is often referred to as space. Space is essential for creating of the bully’s image in relation to the smaller child com-
some sort of prayer, reform, or repentance from the audience. way that the eye is directed through a visual text provides an effective arrangement within a visual text, and negative municates the action of bullying itself, where one person
insight into the intended purpose of the communication. space which is intentionally empty space can be one of the aggressively makes another individual feel small. In addition,
Addendum: One question that we should always ask our- most important tools in visual design and visual rhetoric. the difference in scale between the two also could commu-
selves when doing any rhetorical analysis concerns the effec- Line: A line is any two connected points. It can be wavy, Space can allow the audience visual “time” to process dif- nicate something about the magnitude of the problem of
tiveness of the text. There are fascinating historical explora- straight, curved—it can even be dotted or implied. Lines can ferent aspects of a visual text, as opposed to having all the bullying in schools.
tions that might be able to provide some context surround- also be of varying thicknesses (or weights). In terms of visual information or images stacked upon each other. Space is
ing the broadside we have analyzed here which are beyond rhetoric, lines typically do one of two things: connect or sep- essential for the audience’s navigation of the visual text. It Balance: Balance concerns the arrangement of the visual ele-
the scope of our discussion. That said, the marginalia—those arate. A line can connect two concepts or show progression can also be used to create emphasis; for example, if there is ments within a visual text, specifically the distribution of the
handwritten notes on the text—provide us some insight into from one position to another; think of how a graph might a large poster of mostly negative space which has an image visual weight of colors, textures, objects, space, etc. Visual
how this Lord Have Mercy broadside might have affected the use a line to show a trend. Lines can also be used to divide of a small red apple in the bottom corner and typography weight is the ability of any one visual element to attract the
audience. While we cannot tell from the limited information visual texts, such as creating a border between columns which at the top, that space helps emphasize the words and the eye’s attention; a circle that is bold red arranged beside a
provided on the visual text itself whether there was “repen- might present two sides; for example, when you create a pro- apple by simplifying the design and focusing the eyes on circle of a fainter rose color exerts more force to attract the
tance” or some religious revival, we can see that the owner con list, you often draw a line to divide the two positions. just the two elements. eye and therefore has more visual weight. Visual texts can be
of the text spent at least a year documenting and updating arranged to have either a symmetrical or asymmetrical bal-
the statistics of plague deaths. Even further, the handwrit- Color: Color is one of the most useful elements of rhetor- Texture & Value: Objects and aspects of visual texts can ance; in the first case, there is equal visual weight on either
ten columns of statistics not only continue down the right- ical design. Technically, it is the property possessed by an have both texture and value, which helps provide a depth side of an implied dividing line, and in the second case the
hand side of the page continuing the information from the object that produces different sensations on the eye as the to the visuals. Texture provides an added dimension to the visual weight is intentionally skewed to one side for emphasis.
broadside, but the owner has also written additional sta- object reflects or absorbs light. Color can be used to evoke objects, giving the eye something interesting on which to
tistics beginning on the bottom, left-hand side of the page an emotion or stir the affect of the audience; think about the dwell, but it can also be used within graphs and graphics to Unity (or Harmony
Harmony):): Unity is a complex term which refers
which wrap around the bottom. The way that you interpret how images with red can be used excite individuals to anger. demonstration some sort of distinction—in a similar way to to how all the individual elements within a visual text work
that textual engagement likely reveals something about how Color can also be used to draw connections both conceptu- using color to show similarity or differences between things. together to create a sense of wholeness; it is a measure of
effective the text’s purpose was: What does this marginalia ally within a visual text and to external associations; for exam- Value is a gradation of the color—the lightness or darkness how all the individual elements of a text are oriented towards
say about how the owner engaged with this text? Does the ple, whenever there is a political poll gaging the opinions of of a color. Value can be used like texture both to steer the a singular focus and purpose. A visual text has unity (or har-
writing reveal something about what the audience might voters, they often use the red and blue associations both to audience’s eyes towards different areas of a visual text, or mony) when its individual pieces fit together stylistically and
have found as “most important” on the document, despite organize the participants according to political party regis- to help make meaning from a visual by creating a progres- work together effectively; it can lack unity when any one visual
perhaps visual weight pointing elsewhere? Does this activity tration and to connect the results of the poll to the colors sion or distinction. element does not quite fit or draws attention away from the
of writing upon the broadside work with or against the pur- associated with the national political parties. Color can also main purpose of the visual text.
pose we explored above? be used to help create a contrast which directs the audience’s Typography: Typography is the technical term for the design
eyes towards an important point of emphasis; think about the or selection of letters; it includes the arrangement of fonts, These visual elements should have a more thorough treat-
III. Designing Meaning: Visual Elements for Your Rhetorical effect of placing a bright red statistic on a black-and-white typefaces, visual styles of the lettering. Though in visual ment, but these definitions give you a starting point as you
Analysis & Composition poster advocating against smoking—the audience’s eyes are rhetoric we often speak about the visuals with a stress on engage rhetorically with various forms of visual media. The
drawn to the statistic as the visual text utilizes the rhetorical images, the lettering and type that appears within visual texts remaining chapters and case studies of our field guide will
The “Lord Have Mercy” broadside provides an example of appeal of logos to influence the viewer. are essential for setting the tone and ethos of the messag- explore some of the media-specific visual elements of info-
how we can use the tools of rhetorical analysis to critically ing for a rhetorical text. Compare a blackletter typeface (the graphics, film, and photography; these chapters will also

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

Making Meaning Via Visuals 15
14
 explore how the visual elements discussed within this chap-
ter are understood within different visual mediums.

Works Cited &

Visual texts (and all texts) should always be viewed as con-
structed texts, and therefore the arrangement of their visual
elements is important as they guide your eye through the
texts. Our two guiding questions provide both a way to

Further Reading
engage with the visual elements and a scaffolded process
for deciphering the meaning and purpose of those visual
texts: 1) what is happening with your eyes—what and how
do you see the visual text, and 2) what meaning-making
is occurring via the presentation and arrangement of the
images, typography, and visual elements. As you continue
reading and utilizing your tools of visual rhetoric, remember
to focus on the places where your eyes are drawn—specifi-
cally on that information and imagery which is emphasized On Visual Reading: On English Plague Mourning-Cross ; England's Lord Have
Mercy upon Us ; Containing the Certain
or de-emphasized via color, contrast, space, emphasis, etc.
Barnett, Scot., et al., editors. Rhetoric,
Broadsides: Causes of Pestilential Diseases, with an
Accompt of Several Modern Plagucs
through Everyday Things. The
“A Cure for the Plague.” The British [Sic] or Visitations in Times Past, as
University of Alabama Press, 2017.
Library - The British Library, https:// Well in Other Countries as in the City
[Link]/learning/timeline/ of London, as Also, the Number of
Danesi, Marcel. “Visual Rhetoric
[Link]. Those That Then Died, Not Onely
and Semiotic.” Oxford Research
of the Plague, but of All Diseases,
Encyclopedia of Communication,
“Broadside Ballads Online.” Ballads Continued down to This Present
24 May 2017, [Link]
Online, Bodleian Libraries, [Link] Day, SEPTEMB.5, 1665 : To Which Is
communication/view/10.1093/acre-
[Link]/search/theme/ Likewise Added, a Necessary Prayer
fore/9780190228613.001.0001/
Plague/?query=&f_Themes=Plague. for This Present Time.” Contagion -
acrefore-9780190228613-e-43.
CURIOSity Digital Collections, https://
Questions to Ask Yourself as You Rhetorically Engage with a Visual Text: “Broadsides from the Crawford [Link]/contagion/
Olson, Lester C., et al., editors. Visual
Collection.” (1) - Londons Lord Have catalog/36-990062309710203941.
Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication
1) What is happening with your eyes—what and how do you see the visual text? and American Culture. SAGE, 2008.
Mercy upon Us - Broadsides from the
• What do you see? What is the visual text, and what elements combine to make Crawford Collection - National Library
that text? Hocks, Mary E. “Understanding
of Scotland, [Link]
• Where are your eyes pulled in the text? Where is the visual weight and emphasis? Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing
broadsides-from-the-crawford-collec-
tion/archive/144782414?mode=tran-
Environments.” College Composition
2) What meaning-making is occurring via the presentation and arrangement of the and Communication, vol. 54, no. 4,
scription.
images, typography, and visual elements? 2003, pp. 629–56. JSTOR, [Link]
• Who is the visual text’s audience? Does the visual text effectively communicate org/10.2307/3594188.
Harding, Vanessa. “Reading
to that desired audience? Plague in Seventeenth-Century
• Is there a particular context such as a historical, social, or cultural backdrop that Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A.
London.” OUP Academic, Oxford
affects how the audience views the visual text? Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate:
University Press, 16 Nov. 2017,
• What is the visual text communicating? What does it mean? What is the purpose A Rhetoric for Integrating Written,
[Link]
of the visual text? Visual, and Oral Communication.
article-abstract/32/2/267/4636642.
• Is that visual text effective at communicating its desired purpose? Pearson, 2013.
“The Mourning-Cross, or, England's
Lord Have Mercy upon Us ;

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Making Meaning Via Visuals 17

16
 Chapter 2: +
Infographics
Lauren Terbrock Elmstad, Ph.D.
FI GURE 1

Taken from the phrase “information graphics,” infographics serve as a cultural

tool to present, quite literally, information in graphic form. In her book History of
Information Graphics, Sandra Rendgen expands the term “infographics” as not
only a cultural tool, but also the “preparation of information or data, the process
of visually encoding it and the preservation and distribution of it via visual means”
(5). The methods and choices for creating and disseminating infographics are
part and parcel of the information presented. This chapter, then, will consider
the history of and why one might consider infographics as a rhetorical tool, as
well as the processes and methods of creating them.

In Infographics: The Power of Visual Storytelling, Lankow et al. concisely state

that “The design of information is nothing new” (14). Visually representing and
disseminating information is a well-established practice. Tracing the history takes
one as far back as prehistoric cave paintings all the way to present-day digital FI GURE 2
visualizations circulated on social media. In between, there are countless exam-
ples, such as the first known star chart of Su Song published in 1092 (figure 1),
Carington Bowles’ “The Comical Hotch Potch, or The Alphabet turn'd Posture-
Master, 1782” (figure 2), and Harold Fisk’s fifteen meander maps of the Mississippi
river (1944) (figure 3).

Infographics are thus part of a long-standing practice of “Visually encoding and

saving information, in order to make it easier to work with and transmit to oth-
ers” (Rendgen 5). Nonetheless, infographics have seen a major surge in recent
decades through the digitization of communication. Lankow et al. argue that
visual rhetorics tap into the contemporary fast-paced distribution of information;
specifically, “Infographics provide a format that utilizes engaging visuals that not
only appeal to an audience hungry for information, but also aid in the compre-
hension and retention of that material" (12). Information in visual graphic form
helps to organize and disseminate information with a close attention to the need
for quick and efficient rhetorical advocacy.

FI GURE 3
Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Infographics
18 19
 A C A S E S TUD Y: TH E I NF O GRA P H I C S O F W . E . B . DU B O IS
In 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition opened as a Du Bois’ infographics provide an historic example of the
display of the changes and advances of the Americas ways data visualization preceded digitization, yet still exist
since Columbus’ arrival 400 years prior. One partic- on a global scale. More than this, the infographics are still
ular population was excluded from the exposition: relevant in their communication of the accomplishments
Black Americans. Ida B. Wells wrote a pamphlet titled of Black Americans in a world in which those contributions
“The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the are excluded from mainstream narratives.

Why infographics?
World’s Columbian Exposition,” which drew attention
to the exclusion of accomplishments and contributions
of Black Americans, especially enslaved Black Ameri-
cans, during that time.

When the next World’s Fair came around seven years

later in Paris, the exposition’s America delegation
worked with W.E.B. Du Bois to include an exhibition on
Black life in America. The exhibition included photo-
graphs, bibliographies of Black writings, volumes of
patents by Black inventors, and small statues of figures
such as Frederick Douglass. Additionally, Du Bois, in
conjunction with other designers and scholars, created
One major advantage of infographics, particularly in the 21st century, around 60 infographics to communicate “the evolu-
is the ability to reach audiences as they scan for quick information tion of black life since emancipation” (Hsu). Du Bois’
on smartphones, laptops, and other devices. In White Space is Not infographics leverage design and information, creating
data visualizations that feel both historical and con-
Your Enemy, Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen argue, rightfully so, temporary1. As Hsu writes, “There’s a surprising amount
that audiences primarily look for “pictures and headlines that pique of open space, as though viewers are being asked to
our interest. We may or may not read further… We may be moving so fill in the history and context that hasn’t been spelled
fast that we need to absorb it at a glance or miss it altogether” (154). out for them. The color schemes — predominantly red,
Because audiences scan in such a way, infographics engage visually green, yellow, and blue, with the occasional pink or
in deeper and broader ways than text alone (Golombisky and Hagen purple — convey a kind of playful optimism” (“What W.
E. B. Du Bois Conveyed in His Captivating Infograph-
154). Another advantage of infographics is accessibility, not just in
ics”).
expediency, but for audiences who experience barriers to reading As you read through this chapter, consider the ways these
large chunks of text, watching videos, or listening to lengthy audio. infographics utilize approaches, methods, and design el-
These points of access – reduced time and space for dissemination ements to appeal to audiences and communicate a clear
and retention of information, as well as the ability for a broader audi- message.
ence with varying levels of ability and literacy – make infographics a
particularly effective visual medium.

1 THE INFOGRAPHICS SHOWN HERE WERE

CREATED IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY.
LANGUAGE USE HAS CHANGED EXPONEN-
TIALLY SINCE THAT TIME. NONETHELESS,
THE INFOGRAPHICS DO CONTAIN OUTDAT-
ED TERMINOLOGY.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Infographics

20 21
 Appeal

+
"Communication should engage a voluntary audience.” (30)

Because audiences encounter such vast amounts of information daily, and on multiple devices and platforms, the ability to
appeal to an audience – capture and hold their attention – is both a foremost component and hurdle of infographic design.
Lankow et al. ask the questions, “How do you get people’s attention, and keep it long enough to share your message with
them? How do you appeal to an audience in a world of information overload in which people constantly face new inputs,
options, and decisions?” (40)

Priorities of Comprehension

Infographics
"Communication should effectively provide knowledge that enables a clear understanding of the information.”
(30)

Understanding how audiences most effectively encounter and comprehend information is a priority when considering info-
graphic design. Many audiences will claim to be “visual learners,” indicating that they understand information through visual
media best. Some recent research indicates that self-proclaimed “visual learners" might identify as such not because of
their learning style, but rather because of the influx of visual communication and visual digitization through today’s most
popular devices and platforms. Whether or not audiences prefer to learn through visual media, that is how the majority
In the chapter “Importance and Efficacy: Why Our Brains Love of sighted audiences engage with information. Through crafting messages and telling stories through a combination of
Infographics,” Lankow et al. provide a framework of priorities for images, words, and design, infographics provide a certain level of distinct comprehensibility.
creating infographics. Split into three nonhierarchical areas, the
priorities are appeal, comprehension, and retention.

Retention

+
"Communication should impart memorable knowledge.” (30).

While infographics provide comprehensibility, their ability to “help people retain information, “as the graphics are able to
extend the reach of our memory systems” (Lankow et al. 50). In their book, Lankow et al. provide a breakdown of the three
types of memory access through images: iconic memory, long-term memory, and visual working memory (50-2). Elements
of memory systems, such as “encod[ing] information more deeply,” memorable style over “plain graphics,” and “emotional
responses” aid in the ways audiences might “solidify the image in their memories” (51).

All three of these priorities – appeal, comprehension, and retention – aim toward
the main goal of a visual rhetorical tool: action. Lankow et al. write, “By definition,
all information graphics are aimed at communicating information. What varies
is the purpose for doing so – and understanding this purpose is what determines
a graphic’s priorities” (38). Through its appeal, as well as through an audience’s
comprehension and retention, what does an infographic do? And how does an
infographic get its audience to do something in response? Various appraoches,
methods, and elements make all the difference in how an infographic reaches
and persuades an audience.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Infographics

23
22
 Approaches
Lankow et al. argue that one of the overarching questions is what the infographic aims to
achieve. Is the message meant to be explorative or narrative? (34)

Explorative Infographics:
Conveys information in a clear and concise manner, allowing audiences
to come to their own conculsions.

Applications:
• Academic research
• Scientific and technical education
• Business intelligence,

Approaches,
• Data analysis
Characteristics:
• Minimalist
• Only includes elements that

Methods,
represent data

and Elements of Narrative Infographics:

Infographics
Informs and entertains an audience through a
predermined storyline and outcome

Applications:
• Publications,
• Blogs,
• Content marketing
To achieve those priorities – appeal, comprehension, and retention – there are seemingly • Sales and marketing materials
endless decisions one makes to render information into a visual graphic. The process of
Characteristics:
determining the purpose of the infographic, the message communicated, the audience,
• Illustrative
and what the audience should do with the message all affects those decisions. This section
• Design-focused
will cover some of that process, particularly approaches, methods, and elements of creat-
• Seeks to appeal to viewers
ing infographics with purpose and audience in mind.
with engaging visuals

An important note on process: There is “no implied hierarchy” (Lankow 59) in the
methods and formats of designing an infographic. Rather, the design comes through a
recursive process “determined by how effective it is at containing and delivering the infor-
mation you want to communicate” (59).

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Infographics

24 25
 Methods Infographics primarily exist on a flat surface. These methods "attempt to
systemtize these flat inscriptions for the purpose of visualization...each deal
Elements
with the pictorial surface differently" (Rendgen 10). In chapter 1, this resource guide outlined some design elements that are useful across all visual
rhetorical tools, such as color, font, space, line, shape, contrast, balance, and [Link] Space is

Organizational
Not Your Enemy (Golombisky and Hagen) lists out some general advice on how best to use those
design elements and appeal to an audience for comprehension and retention (160-163):

This method is "geared toward producing a visual structure"

(Rendegn 10). Done in a freehand way, "Elements are arranged
on the surface of the image in such a way that they represent
an invisible configuration" (10). This method can utilize shapes,
grids, or combinations.
+ "Infographics must be able to stand alone."
Do not anticipate or expect your audience to know or gather any additional information than
what is on the infographic. Audiences are already engaging with your design as a quick scan of
information.

+ "Thoroughly research your topic before you begin."

The more you know and understand the topic, the easier it will be to create a concise message

Geometric
for your audience.

+ "Think of your infographic as a design within a design."

This method works by encoding units on both axes of the No matter which method you choose, your infographic will need to be organized in a clear way.
page (Rendgen 10). While the organizational and geometric Aligning graphics as a grip, as a shape, or in a freehand way should be easy to follow for
methods appear similar, insofar as both work within a particu- audiences.
lar structure of the page, they are different in that the former
is freehand, and the latter relies on a measurable division of + "Group things."
the vertical and horizontal axes.
Create clusters of related elements,, graphics, and text. Use negative, empty space to make use
of proximity to show elements that are related or not.

+ "Color is one of your greatest allies, providing organization and wayfinding for viewers."
Consistency in design elements, such as color, font, and other details make it easier to organize
information for quick viewing.

Mimetic + "Give credit where it is due."

Be sure to include citations and attributions, both in-text and as a resources list.
This method relies on an "illustrative quality" in which the "sur-
face serves solely as an image carrier, in order to show how + "Minimize ornamentation."
something looks" (Rendgen 12). While the image exists on a pic- Make sure your infographic is clean. Backgrounds and other embelishments can be cluttering.
torial plane, "Three-dimensional technical or architectural struc- Don't let any elements distract from the message.
tures are projected onto the surface with the help of perspec-
tival methods and, where necessary, outer layers are removed
+ "Keep the writing tight."
in order to make the inner structure visible” (12).
Make sure headline, titles, and block text is short and concise. Use action verbs when possible.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Infographics 27

26
 Additional Further +
Resources Reading
Design Elements Programs
Berinato, Scott. Good Charts: The [Link]: A free graphic design
HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More tool. Pro account available through
Persuasive Data Visualizations . the Compass Lab.
Harvard Business Review Press, 2016.

Lupton, Ellen, et al. Extra Bold:

A Feminist Inclusive Anti-Racist
Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic
Resource 3 Designers. Princeton Architectural [Link]: A free graphic design
Lankow, Jason, et al. Infographics : The Press, 2021. tool. Pro account available through
Power of Visual Storytelling. John Wiley & the Compass Lab.
Sons, Inc, 2012. Sherin, Aaris. Design Elements, Color
Fundamentals: A Graphic Style Manual
Resource 1 for Understanding How Color Impacts
Design. Rockport Publishers, 2012.
Golombisky, Kim and Rebecca Hagen. White
Space Is Not Your Enemy : A Beginner’s Guide
Tondreau, Beth. Layout Essentials:
to Communicating Visually through Graphic,
100 Design Principles for Using Grids.
Web & Multimedia Design. Taylor & Francis
Rockport, 2019. InDesign: Design software from Adobe.
Group, 2017.
Available on select laptops and desk-
Williams, Robin. The Non-Designer's top computers in the Compass Lab.
Design Book: Design and Typographic
Principles for the Visual Novice.
Peachpit Press, 2015.
Resource 2
Hsu, Hua. “What W. E. B. Du Bois Conveyed
in His Captivating Infographics.” The New
Yorker, 6 Nov. 2019, [Link]
com/books/page-turner/what-web-du-bois-
conveyed-in-his-captivating-infographics. Resource 4
Rendgen, Sandra, et al. History
of Information Graphics. Köln,
Taschen, 2019.

28 29
 "The movies we see shape the way we view the world around us and our place in the world.
Moreover, a close analysis of any particular movie can tell us a great deal about the artist,
the society, or industry that created it.”
Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan, Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film

Chapter 3:
Rhetoric in Film
Sydney Lindsey

When analyzing a film, your first instinct may be to work In this chapter, we will be focusing on what we call the visual
with the dialogue and written lines. While this can be excit- rhetoric of film, but we will also frequently apply these same
ing, the writing is only one small part of the experience of concepts to other forms of video entertainment. In order
viewing a film. Film and other video formats including tele- to acquaint you with some of these important visual ele-
vision, YouTube, TikTok, and video games, to name a few, ments, we will rely on a popular scene from Stranger Things,
are artistic expressions and forms of communication that Season 4, often referred to as “Max’s Song” or “Max’s Running
rely on our visual and aural understanding. If you’ve ever felt Scene.” This scene, starring Sadie Sink and Jamie Campbell
scared when the music crests in a horror movie or felt joy Bower, made major waves upon its release in June 2022, and
and relief when your favorite character appears on screen its emotional impact coupled with the suspense it creates
after walking out of a burning building, you have experienced had a profound impact upon many viewers. While many
the sway that auditory and visual cues can hold over an screenshots are included from the scene in the remainder
audience. To rhetorically analyze a film, one must ask how of the chapter, I highly recommend that you watch the full
all the different elements of the film, including sound and scene, only four minutes long, at this link ([Link]
visuals, work together to create a specific product. How do bV0RAcuG2Ao), or by searching “Max’s Song (Full Scene)”
these elements communicate ideas, and how do they define in YouTube.
their audience, purpose, and context?
([Link]

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Rhetoric in Film

30
 01 Close-Up
A close-up is a shot that centers around one subject, usu-
ally a character's face. The closeness of the shot allows the
filmmaker to communicate physical and psychological detail
with precision. The close-up not only identifies that a charac-

Let's Take a Look:

ter is significant to the scene, but it conveys the character's
emotions and allows the audience to empathize with the
character. Here, Stranger Things creators use the close-up
to focus on the scene's protagonist, Max, while also asking
us to be fearful for her.
Fig. 2. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..."(0:01).

02 Establishing

1. The first elements we will discuss are The establishing shot is named so because the shot "estab-
lishes" the setting and background of the scene. These shots
known as the shot type and camera angle. are almost always at the beginning of the scene, although
not necessarily the first. The purpose is to orient the viewer
so that they understand the spatial relationship between
A shot in film studies is part of an what position you're seeing--high, low, them. characters and objects. The establishing shot showcases the
edited film. It is an uninterrupted sec- or somewhere in between. Shot types area where the action of the scene will take place and pro-
tion of footage from a single camera. and camera angles are named after Other than indicating that something vides a greater sense of realism for the audience. Establishing
More sophisticated films and vid- these qualities a majority of the time, or someone is important, shot types Fig. 3. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:02). shots can be shot from any camera angle, although they are
eos will typically have multiple shots but sometimes they can also be called and camera angles are used to show most often at eye level, as seen here, at a high angle, or at
edited together, whereas a more sim- by what they are intended to show. emotion, to change our understand- a "bird's-eye view."
ple TikTok of someone speaking to ing of a character, or to show dramatic

03
the camera may be composed of only The variety of shots and angles used irony or foreshadowing. You may not
one shot, yet at many angles. Different to compose a film have different notice a casette tape on the floor in
shot types are based on the distance effects on the viewer, making them an the background of a character's room,
of the camera from the subject being important part of a film's visual rheto- but you will certainly notice it if the
filmed, whereas a camera angle is
determined based on the level and
ric. The filmmakers often make deci-
sions about how to film a certain shot
character is fumbling about and look-
ing for it on their desk, when you've
Point-of-View
height of the camera in relation to the by determining what is most essen- already been shown in a cut-away that
subject. It is important to note that tial to the scene, and then directing the tape is under their bed. The point-of-view shot is filmed at the character's eye level
shot types and angles are often com- the viewer's eye toward that object or and shows what that character would see. These can be
bined in different or unique ways, mak- character. For example, the filmmak- Let's take a look at our scene from objective, shot over the character's shoulder, or subjective,
ing it necessary to learn about them in ers might show a close-up of someone Stranger Things, where I'll use film shot as if viewing from the character's eyes. These shots often
conjunction. You'll see many examples eavesdropping behind a door to show stills in chronological order to note reveal a great deal about both the character and what they
of how this works as we analyze our their reaction to the gossip they over- some of the most important shots are viewing. In this POV shot from Stranger Things, Vecna
scene from Stranger Things, but for hear. Then, when the eavesdropper is and angles. is gazing slightly down at Max. While this obviously reflects
now you can keep in mind that a shot caught, we may have a camera angle that he is taller than she is, it also reveals his menancing
type describes how much you can see, looking down at them from above to nature and that he is the powerful one in this situation. Max
Fig. 4. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:05).
wheras a camera angle describes from indicate that a person is standing over is left looking small, trapped, and afraid.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Rhetoric in Film 32

31
Medium 04
A medium shot shows some of a character's body, usually
07 High-Angle
In a high-angle shot, the camera is placed above eye-level,
giving the effect that viewers are looking down on a char-
from the waist up. The goal of this shot is to provide some
acter. This shot can be used to indicate that the viewer is
of the facial details and emotions from the close-up, but to
superior to the character or that its subject is in a weak or
reveal more of the character's body language and move-
compromised position. From the context of the scene, we
ment. The medium shot gives us more context than the
know that Max is on the brink of death, meaning she is cer-
close up, in this case showing that Max is on the ground
tainly vulnerable. Conversely, a low angle shot is looking
and fighting with a claw-like motion.
up to the character. While not fully featured in our exam-
ple scene, it usually implies the opposite of the high angle
Fig. 5. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:11) shot; the character that is looked up to is superior to the
Fig. 8. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (1:43)
viewer and in a position of power.

Long 05
The long shot is one that includes the character's full body,
in addition to their surroundings. The focus is moved from
the details of the character to their body language and how
they are present or interacting in their surroundings. The
long shot is used in the example in an interesting way. Max,
who is laying on the ground, is filmed from the position of
her feet. This allows filmmakers to use the effects granted
by the long shot, while still keeping the framing of the shot
"tight," meaning that not much of the background is visible.
Fig. 6. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:12)

Reaction
06
A reaction shot is just what it sounds like! This shot is
designed to show how other characters percieve the action
in the scene and how they may respond to it. The reaction
shot invites judgement of the characters, as well (Photinos
and Tateishi). In this case, the shot shows Lucas, Dustin,
and Steve scrambling to find a way to break Max out of the
dream state. We may determine from this shot that they are
suffiently panicked, but not operating efficiently. This shot
looks starkly different from everything else in the scene, but
we'll discuss this more as we think about lighting. Fig. 7. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:31)

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Rhetoric in Film

34
33
 01 High-key
While you would never describe this shot as particularly
"bright," what's important to notice here is the level of con-
trast. If you look at the level of light on the grass compared
to the grass in the shadows cast by the characters' bodies,
you'll notice that there isn't a dramatic difference between
the two. The scene's lighting is natural, even if it might be
on a gloomy day. However, when positioned after shots that
take place in the Upside Down and Max's dream world, the
effect is jarring. The lighting in this shot is used to provide
Fig. 10. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..."(0:31).
a sense of clarity; this is the "real" world.

02
Lighting a Scene:
Low-key
While this scene is overall very dark, the contrast between
the places of light and the places of darkness is very high.
Look at Max's shoulder and the light spots in her hair com-
pared to the shadow underneath her. And of course, the dis-

2.
tinct red cast to the lighting of the Upside Down is difficult

The lighting used in a scene can dramatically impact to miss. The low-key lighting coupled with the red tint make
the mood of these shots extremely dark and forboding. It is
its overall tone. Fig. 11. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:11).
clear that Max is in danger. The difference between the real
world and the Upside Down is never more clear than when
she sees her escape, around 0:54, signified by a gleaming
Seeing a figure draped in shadows or a natural feeling. High-key lighting is lighting source is coming from behind
portal of light.
lit only from below may strike fear in evenly dispersed and unimposing, mak- the subject being filmed, creating a light
the hearts of viewers, while warm light- ing it a "neutral" lighting for many forms atmosphere and characters that are cast

03
ing from above may mimic a peaceful, of film. in shadow. This can make a character
sunny day. The amount of light on the more frightening or impressive, can cre-
subject and the corresponding amount Low-key lighting, on the other hand, ate an ambient glow that is often other-
of shadow is called a shot or scene's creates high contrast between the light worldy, or show the subject's virtuous-
lighting ratio (Barsam and Monahan
168). While filmmakers use many tech-
and shadow of a scene. The darkness
of these scenes often matches a dark-
ness with what we might call the "halo
effect." Specific details are erased by
Backlighting
niques to create specific styles of light- ness of subject material, low-key light- shadows, and the silhoutte of the char-
ing, there are three simple and recog- ing being a favorite for horror movies, acter is what remains. The final shot of the scene features the backlighting you
nizable categories that lighting tends gruesome action, true crime, and film see here. The brightness of the sky is juxtaposed against the
to fall in. We will discuss these and their noir (Barsam and Monahan 168). Deep teens, who have narrowly escaped. They have triumphed, but
effects here, and then examine exam- shadows create uneasiness and sug- just barely, and the backlighting here is used to signify the
ples from our scene in Stranger Things. gest that something is hiding in that darkness that they are facing, yet they remain guided by light.
darkness. They also often suggest that
High-key lighting creates very little con- something tragic has happened, empha-
trast between the light and shadow of a sizing harshness and cruelty.
scene. In fact, this kind of lighting often Fig. 12. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (3:45).
produces very few shadows and creates Backlighting is so named because the

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Rhetoric in Film

35 36
The Final Cut:
3. Finally, the editing of a film dramatically alters the Fig. 13. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:08). Fig. 14. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (0:10).

viewer's experience.
Let's return to our examples from Stranger Things. Montage is used throughout this scene, and is integral to our understanding
of the action taking place. Here, in Fig. 13, we see Vecna flick his fingers. This lets us know that in the very next shot, in Fig. 14, he
Film editing is often called the “invisible art,” because, when done well, it tends to escape our notice. The shots we have
is the one who is controlling the vines that grab Max.
analyzed thus far did not just arrive together in sequence; a film editor made many choices to shape them into the finished
project that we view.

Editing “is the selection and arrangement of shots and sounds” in a film (Barsam and Monahan 252). Rather than being a
simple process of choosing already-completed shots and lining them up together to make a scene, editing is a specific art
form that curates the movie experience, shaping how the viewers perceive time, performance, narrative, and structure in the
film. Film editors use shots, which they then “cut,” deciding how much of the shot to use in creating a scene.

For example, our scene from Stranger Things uses many, many shots in fast succession to create an effect on the audience,
making us feel a sense of urgency through rapid movement. This strategy is often referred to as “fast-cutting,” and is used
to emphasize the quick passage of time without excluding any necessary information from the scene. This is where the
variety of shots used is helpful: the editor establishes the setting, key characters and their points of view, and even reaction
shots in only 30 seconds.

Editing has five major functions, as identified by Barsam and Monahan:

“1. Organize fragmented actions and events. Fig. 15. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (2:24). Fig. 16. Still from "Max's Song (Full Scene)..." (2:25).
2. Create meaning through juxtaposition.
3. Create spatial relationships between shots.
4. Create temporal relationships between shots.
Then, in a more complicated instance of suggestion, we know that the song, being played by her friends in the real world, is trig-
5. Establish and control shot duration, pace, and rhythm.” (285)
gering Max to have flashbacks to happier times. We assume this because Lucas's voice is heard while he is not physically present
in the Upside Down, leading us into a different shot which we may recognize because we have seen this shot before, in the real
It is important to note, though, that these five functions are highly interrelated. In our example, the editor chooses to show
world and at a different time. The audience understands these edited-together shots as taking the form of a "flashback," a form
the establishing shot early in the scene, which gives viewers a sense of space, but by showing it quickly also establishes that
that is already well-established in the world of film and television. The audience understands through sound distortion, differences
time is of the essence, here, and neither the characters nor the viewers have time to enjoy the scenery.
in lighting, and even a faint photograph-clicking noise that these shots are images and moments that Max is remembering from
the past. These moments are further separated from the main action through a lack of ambient or environmental noise. After this
Now, let’s spend a little more time on function number two: meaning-making through juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is the edi-
montage, Max's eyes fly open as she attacks Vecna, allowing her to run away. We only assume that these flashbacks allow her to
tor’s best form of communication, and is essential to nearly every cut they make. This concept is known as “montage editing,”
do this because of careful and heavily stylized editing.
where an editor places related images in successive frames, which only form meaning because they are placed together.
When we see the image of a sad little girl, followed by the image of an ice cream cone upside down on the sidewalk, we
assume that she is sad because she dropped her ice cream cone. However, if those images are then followed by an image
of the school bully pointing and laughing at the little girl, the meaning changes. We might then assume that she is crying
because the bully pushed her, causing her to drop her ice cream cone, but she’s really upset by the bully.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Rhetoric in Film

37 38
 Discussion and
Further Reading
While none of these elements alone can describe the
magical and moving power of film, careful analysis
moves us in a helpful direciton.

While the contents and examples of viewer may not even realize are being Works Cited and Further Reading:
this chapter focus on one specific used by creators to influence their
genre under the umbrella of film, the thinking. By studying the effects of Barsam, Richard and Dave
information discussed and the rhe- different shot types or camera angles, Monahan. Looking at Movies: An
torical techniques used apply to more lighting, and editing, you gain insight Introduction to Film. W.W. Norton
than just a prestige television series. into the composition of film, revealing and Company, 2019.
Light conveys mood and shots focus how certain visual rhetorical devices
direction just as much in a video game convey meaning and create powerful “Max's Song (Full Scene) | Kate Bush
like The Quarry as in a movie such as emotions in viewers. - Running Up That Hill | Stranger
Arrival, yet the intended effects on the Things | Netflix.” YouTube, https://
audience may be vastly different. [Link]/bV0RAcuG2Ao.

How does the juxtaposition of images Photinos, Christine and Ramie

in a documentary suggest culpability Tateishi. "Rhetorical Analysis of
in a local forest fire? How does the Film." Writing Commons, https://
slow pacing of a film trick the viewer [Link]/section/
into finding startling or strange events research/research-methods/tex-
comforting or relaxing? Analyzing the tual-methods/rhetorical-analysis/
ways that visual rhetoric is utilized in rhetorical-analysis-of-film/.
all forms of film sparks interesting
discussions, revealing long-standing
techniques and forms that the average

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

39
 Chapter 4: +
Photography
Simone Sparks, M.A.

A
n exciting perk about bringing together multimodal compo- human mediation. Countering such a possibility, Susan Sontag’s
sition and rhetoric is this intersection facilitates interacting seminal essay On Photography problematizes the idea that pho-
with a given medium simply for the purpose of doing and tography could ever scribe an image of something and leave it
saying evocative, interesting things with it. It’s easy to slip into a unmediated by human influence; it always invents particular ways
defeatist mindset that all has been done, said, created, referenced, of seeing and subjectivity. She writes, “It would not be wrong to
and discussed. An original perspective, argument, idea, or piece of speak of people having a compulsion to photograph: to turn expe-
work is impossible, one might commit oneself to believing. Why rience itself into a way of seeing. Ultimately, having an experience
begin to engage with a new medium, especially one so thoroughly becomes identical with taking a photograph of it, and participating
used, so technically intensive, and so widely mastered as photog- in a public event comes more and more to be equivalent to look-
raphy, especially amidst the already layered context of rhetorical ing at it in photographed form…Today everything exists to end in
writing? One answer is that it only makes sense to bring together a photograph” (Sontag, 24). Despite Sontag’s hyperbolic language
photography and writing, despite their seeming differences, given here (and her essay’s overall cynicism about the social effects of
that photo-graphy literally means ‘writing with light’ (Coleman and photography’s purported shallowness) it’s true that she identifies

i.
James, 1). If we look at photography as a practice of writing with a core role that photographs play in our contemporary context –
light, how might we conceive photography’s medium specific- that of constant, situationally dependent invention. In the most
ities as practices of rhetorical persuasion? This chapter seeks to rose-colored sense, photography, across all its permuted uses, man-
inspire such efforts by introducing students to a photographic lexi- ifests different ways of perceiving experiences visually and tempo-
introducing con primarily though close reading an assortment of photographic rally; it ephemerally snags single moments from particular points
genres, works, and processes. But first, in the interest of demon- of view, and in producing replications of them we proceed knowing
photography as strating what unpacking the rhetoricity of the camera can look like, how we visually appreciate and relate with everyday life. It recur-
an everyday I want to briefly introduce and push back against the conceptual
barrier that photography is a one-dimensional medium that neu-
sively reflects and reanimates social values—what we determine to
be visually pleasing, composed, interesting, and ultimately worth
rhetorical trally represents the real because of its role in our everyday lives. preserving and documenting.
Coleman and James in Capitalism and The Camera write that In this sense, photography is shouldered with an immense
practice photography’s commodification in the 19th century resulted from amount of cultural value, even if it feels organically integrated into
a mechanical desire to “arrest nature by making copies that she our everyday experiences. For an example of how everyday use
herself appeared to trace without the clumsy intervention of the becomes rhetorically interesting, of recent interest to both hob-
human hand” (1). For Coleman and James, photography’s originary byists and fine art photographers alike is the genre of ‘vernacular
commodity fetishism was the desire to replicate and represent expe- photography.’ Eric Lutz writes in “Poetics of the Everyday” that this
rience with a method unaffected or uninhibited by seemingly-flawed rising trend within ‘found photography’ results historically from “The

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography 41

40
 invention and marketing of portable cameras in the 1890s [which] It might seem, based off of Sontag’s views and those of many
led to a remarkable explosion of vernacular picture making, partic- other critics, that photography as an aesthetic medium is by design
ular in the United States, that lasted through much of the twenti- too automated, too falsely objectivist, too perfectionistic, and aes-
eth century” (12). In turn, collectors, curators, and artists have taken thetically lazy. Yet, these evaluations can be generative for the
interest in the found, folkish experience of finding film rolls or pho- rhetoric classroom because we can call them into question and put
tographs where the image maker is long lost. In sorting through them into practice. As stated here, the rhetorical practice of photog-
vernacular photographs from a rhetorical perspective, the col- raphy can bring us into more sensitive relationships with everyday
lector’s sense of participatory agency becomes salient, height- realities. Photography becomes an ideal technology for multi-
ened in its limitation, because the photographs, produced by modal rhetoric projects exactly because of its intrinsic irony:
mysterious others, were not made with them in mind. Lutz writes it can very technically intensive, but its automation benignly
of vernacular portraits, “Portraits…often taken between friends and anchors it to our everyday experiences. It thus insists that the
family, usually end up illuminating more about personal experience user question their own processes. Lutz’s collation of vernacular
than specific social or historical situations. By opening doors to photographs reminds us to value photography’s immense range
informal moments and private spaces of domestic life, they speak of medium specific uses as “an acceptance, even a celebration, of
to a shared human condition through an intimacy that many fine the porous nature of photography’s boundaries, which encompass
art photographers often cannot access” (18). Seeing is not believ- diverse fields of activity such as scientific documentation as well
ing, but an endless curiosity. as a broad range of expertise, from casual amateurs to artistic pro-
Figures 1 and 2, for example, depict a seemingly familial group Fig. 1: (Lutz, 101). ‘119’ May 18, fessionals…fluidity we take for granted in today’s media saturated
where two womens’ faces have been cut out, and the face of the 1940 world” (12). And, identifying how photographic design choices are
man between them appears defaced, perhaps by scratching the made has to involve thinking about the image’s curated relationship
photo negative or taking chemicals and a rag to the print. Why? to real life; as Sontag skeptically puts it, “Only that which narrates
What relationships could possibly exist between the subjects, and can make us understand” (23). In other words, photography (just
why would the photographer’s relationship to this group lead them like language) sneakily promises that it always conveys some-
(or someone else) to efface the photograph? If the womens’ faces thing true, real, or correct. You could say that between these two
were simply cut out for a locket or other memento in good faith, attitudes is where doing rhetoric with photography begins.
why is the man’s face clearly altered? Could it simply be an artistic
statement to cut out the womens’ faces, but disfigure the face of
the man between them? From a presentist angle, a phone’s facial
recognition software identifies and logs the childrens’ faces, but
does not recognize any facial features on the man. Can using cur-
rent technology prove that the man’s face was deliberately defaced?
How does modern photography technology mirror our impulse to
wonder at these questions? It’s impossible to answer the rhetorical
questions vernacular photographs raise definitively, but fascinating
to wonder at them. In vernacular photography, the whole question of
a photograph’s desired audience becomes uprooted in its unknow-
ability, and in doing so the found photographs prompt the viewer
to notice every possible rhetorical facet of visual communica- Fig. 2: (Lutz, 101). ‘119’ May
18, 1940; with added facial
tion in trying to interpret them. Instinctual responses become recognition squares
revealed as a process of reflective looking.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography 43

42
 Contextualizing &
Analyzing Photographs Fig. 3: Nicéphore Niepce, La
Table Servie "The Served
Table" (1827)

P
hotography might be most common to and primal images based on humanity's 'culture
us as an everyday tool, but its adapt- of the table' (a term devised by the art historian
ability across settings, purposes, and Norman Bryson). The genre of the still life has ori-
pre-established genres is key to analyzing its vast gins in the paintings of food on the walls of ancient
applicability. Still life, as one common example, Egyptian tombs, which were meant to sustain the

ii.
has been a means of expressing meaning through dead in the afterlife, and it later surfaced in the
visual arrangements of symbolic objects through- paintings of food, flowers and utensils on the walls
out human history, so it’s interesting to consider of Pompeian villas” (Ullrich). Because the still life
how photographers produce work in such a storied, is such a time-told exercise, let's practice how to
close reading established tradition. Still life might appear to be a close read photographs’ medium specific tech-
still-life more recent phenomenon, calling to mind works
like the Dutch Master’s vanitas paintings, but the
niques by juxtaposing examples of still lifes from
various visual mediums that, despite vast aes-
techniques tendency to communicate meaning or appreci- thetic and historical differences, find ways to
ate aesthetic quality through the still life extends deal with established concepts and messages.
even further into history. Even French photogra- Here, we'll look at Taryn Simon’s sculptural pho-
pher Nicéphore Niepce’s image La Table Servie tographs in her series Paperwork and the Will of
"the served table" (Fig. 3), produced in 1827 and Capital (2015) and film stills from Dan Erickson’s
accepted to have been the second earliest photo- Severance (2022). Both participate in the tradition
graph ever produced, has been described as “pho- of still life and show how filmmakers and photog-
tography's entry into a 4,000-year-old tradition raphers have referenced conventional still life tech-
within painting, a rich mining of the daily rituals niques to tell their own narratives.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

Photography 45
44
 Without broadly contextualizing still life, The objects topple over each other, which is not
Fig. 5: Taryn Simon, ‘Comprehensive claims
Niepce’s La Table Servie is not saying much com- only compositionally gratifying but facilitates the settlement agreement between Libya and the
positionally—it just appears as an ordinary table, painters’ goal of saturating their paintings with United States. Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 14, 2008.’
set realistically and mundanely, necessarily immo- moralistic concepts. The sunflower, here, domi- from Paperwork and the Will of Capital, 2015.
bile due to the long exposures necessary to early nates the composition as a symbol of divine devo-
photography techniques. The actual history of the tion (think of how sunflowers’ heliotropism turns
photograph is unclear, so why Niepce composed them towards light). Van Oosterwijk’s sunflower is
the image involves conjecture. We could imagine drawn downwards across the Ten Commandments,
Niepce composing photography’s first still life as a not towards the sun but what is surely a Bible. The
counter to more composed painterly images—the skull, at center, is a placeholder for viewer’s gaze.
photograph contains unassuming, realistic, and Following the religiosity of these works, it looks
believable everyday objects seemingly unaffected up towards the sunflower, not down towards the
and lacking in metaphor, perhaps because Niepce nearby watch, which dictates to the viewer a dis-
was more fixated on developing a photographic interest in ephemeral and limited earthly time as
process as opposed to product. Yet still, why would opposed to the sunflowers’ lasting divinity. The
he choose to stage his image this way? vanitas works are typically very straightforward
In thinking about how the rhetorics of an in their evangelistic symbolic rhetoric; they com-
image consider pre-existing compositional ten- municate self-reinforcing morals. By contrast, La
dencies or audience expectations, Niepce's pho- Table Servie’s standardized replication of a singu-
tograph represents a significant departure from, lar moment in time is unsymbolic entirely; in fact,
say, Dutch vanitas works as ubiquitous examples its agnosticism is heightened by juxtaposing it to Now, let’s look at two contemporary exam- been lifted becomes ultravisible—Simon directly
of how every day, ‘earthly’ objects come forth in a the vanitas paintings. Without this comparison, La ples where photographers engage with still life historicizes them in the photographs’ titles instead
still life. Produced in the wake of the Great Plague Table Servie’s commonplace composition seem- to illustrate how such a storied genre can be of in an explicitly Christian value system. If floral
of London, Maria van Oosterwijk’s Vanitas-Stilleben ingly lacks significance. Why? What might this adapted for current contexts. Taryn Simon’s series arrangements have traditionally conveyed the tran-
(“vanitas still life”) is one of hundreds of examples comparison tell us about photography’s early Paperwork and the Will of Capital (2016) condenses sience of life and the fallibility of human desire in
of these works, which all feature common Christian audiences, purposes, techniques, or surrounding multiple aspects of still life into a repetitive photo- vanitas, by removing vanitas objects she forces the
allegorical objects like wilting flowers, skulls, reli- cultural contexts? What other contexts or ‘rhetor- graphic project, and two stills from Dan Erikson’s viewer to consider politics as the primary container
gious references, and watches, all symbolically ical situations’ should be built around the earliest television series Severance (2022) show how the for moral engagement. Aesthetically speaking, the
communicating the fleeting sensorial beauty of photographs to explicate their significance? photographic still life is not limited to producing flowers lack vivacity. Despite her edits clearly being
earthly life in times of plague distress (See Fig. 4). prints when it intrudes into the film-based medium. hyper-saturated and attention-grabbing, they’re still
Simon describes Paperwork and the Will of Capital believable as everyday objects, true to photogra-
in her own words: “Each photograph represents an phy’s photojournalistic use. Compositionally, they
“impossible bouquet,” a concept that emerged in are often a little unnerving—in Fig. 5, the flowers
Dutch still-life painting parallel to the country’s sev- are ever-so-slightly off center, not quite justified
enteenth-century economic boom and its develop- left, not quite centered, they allow the viewer to
ment of modern capitalism. An impossible bouquet just pass by as they don’t present themselves as
is a man-made fantasy of flowers that could never composed objects that provoke pause. Simon thus
bloom naturally in the same season and geographic recontextualizes viewer expectations about the
location—now made possible by the global con- fallibility of human life in vanitas by amplifying the
sumer market. Thirty-six floral centerpieces were flowers’ use as a passive utility in defining historical
photographed against background and foreground and political moments. What other medium-spe-
colors, keyed by the original decor of the historic cific techniques can be identified here? What kind
ceremonies” (Simon). Look at Fig. 5, and notice how of rhetorical claims can be drawn from them from
Simon purges the conventional symbols in van- the context offered here? What other contexts
itas, to center the common colorful, wilted floral conjure rhetorical inquiry?
Fig. 4: Maria van Oosterwijk, arrangements and thus heighten their meaning.
Vanitas-Stilleben (“vanitas By making flowers the only symbolic objects,
still life”), 1668. the absent historical context from which they’ve

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide 47

46
 Finally, two stills from Dan Erikson’s Severance by these sustained, composed stills. The still life,
(2022) exemplify how photographic still life isn’t lim- as discussed, signals to the viewer that the shots
ited to the production of photographic images—the evoke a symbolic or allegorical tone, following still
still life, here, intrudes into the pilot episode’s plot life’s historical reputation. The show’s protagonist
exposure to underscore the show’s rhetorical angle swaps his two selves’ identity card and watch. This
on labor politics. To briefly summarize the show's nod to vanitas is especially clear due to the use
premise, Severance depicts a dystopia where the of watch symbolism and portrait images, which
employees of a large, secretive, and morally ambig- almost always appear throughout vanitas works
uous corporation can elect to undergo a controver- (See Fig 4). In concord with Taryn Simon’s com-
sial procedure that splits their memory and gives mentary enacted through effacing common van-
them two separate selves inside and outside work. itas objects but still working within the tradition's
Watching the show, the viewer goes in with a lot symbolic order, this scene solely includes the por-
of uncertainty about the show’s rhetorical angle: trait image as an identity card, and the watch. By
does it imagine this procedure to be good or bad? using these two symbols alone, Severance makes its
What do the employees gain or lose? What divi- rhetorical statement about workplace identity and
sive political features in our late-capitalist context time very explicit by echoing the aforementioned
might it be allegorizing? 8-hour workday adage. The essential components Fig. 6, Severance; Ep. 1, 8:03. 2022.
It’s arguable that it's exactly through refer- of worker's rights are figured in Severance’s still
ence to still life photography that the show's rhe- life-esque frames as a representation of individ-
torical angle is solidified: two overhead still shots ual identity in and outside work, and our measured
echo the Eight-hour day movement's slogan about time. One might ask, what of the remaining com-
protecting workers’ time: "Eight hours for work, ponent, rest? Without spoiling it, sleep becomes
eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you one of the show’s major thematic points.
will". This reference communicates to the viewer
that the show is not just telling a good story, but
is self-aware about its use of labor politics, which
presents the viewer with further questions about
how the show will make statements about work-
ers' time, or workers' rights broadly. How is this
achieved? See Figs. 6 and 7: The camera’s com-
posed, framed, birds-eye angle and the intentionally
cluttered aesthetic arrangement of these objects
looks much like the vanitas works and includes
common symbols. An abrupt design change occurs,
as rote plot/character exposition suddenly is broken

Fig. 7, Severance; Ep. 1, 8:26. 2022.

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography

49
48
 Photography's Use
Another key to conceptualizing photography’s uses as a
rhetorical technology is honing one's understanding of how
photography is being used, meaning how it evokes particu-

as Process
lar compositional processes. If a given medium is not a pas-
sive conduit for ideas, but itself presents various ways of
thinking, what ways of knowing come up while working in
the medium? Photography is most conventionally viewed as
a technology that produces aesthetic objects of varying kinds.
Think of the still life techniques above, they exemplify the typi-
cal process of creating aesthetic objects, which de-emphasizes
the process of composition. This is not the only way photogra-
phy can be used, and understanding this walks hand-in-hand
with considering how process uniquely mirrors and reinforces
one's rhetorical stances. What else happens before, during,
and after taking a photograph, and how are the ideas being
communicated impacted? Photographs can also be starting
points for further rhetorical intervention, and photography

iii. can be a concurrent process of composition where the final

images are byproducts of a planned process. After reading
the examples (a few among many other possibilities) in-
cluded this section, students interested in doing photogra-
Identifying phy projects should ask themselves how they are working
compositional with photography’s various compositional processes and
how their process leads them to particular kinds of design
processes choices.
and genres

12 YOUR TITLE (master page) Photography 51

50
 01 post-process
Warren Cariou’s experi- stance by literally using raw bitu-
mental contact-print production men from the photographs' var-
process demonstrates how an ious locations. His photographs’
image's printing and post-pro- “material support is bitumen that
cess can constitute the bulk of he collects from the forest floor
rhetorical intervention. By recast- of the Athabasca tar sands in his
ing wildlife photography as petro- native Saskatchewan, remind-
leum-photography or, as he calls ing us that a refined fuel upon
it, “petrography”, Cariou departs which our economy depends
from his initial photographs of comes from a wild space…Cariou’s
environmental destruction in embodied, dangerous practice
Saskatchewan, de-emphasizing produces toxic images” (Coleman
the aesthetic objects to high- and James, 17). By laboriously
light process as a conduit for "By laboriously pro- producing toxic prints, the initial
what looking at these images ducing toxic prints, photographs are used as start-
means. Carious enacts this end ing points for a further process
by controlling the conditions
the initial photo- of rhetorical intervention enacted
Fig. 8: Syncrude Plant and Tailings under which a viewer interacts graphs are used as in the medium itself. Cariou's
Pond Reflection. 8"x10" petrograph
on aluminum. V. 1, 2014.
with images of environmental starting points for Métis background also links
destruction to carefully rework his photographs to the mode
what Coleman and James outline
a further process of of Indigenous storytelling--the
as “the most common critique of rhetorical interven- photographs sensitize disparate
aerial photographs of mines, oil tion enacted in the audiences by bringing them into
fields, lithium ponds, and toxic a more specific and direct rela-
waste dumps is that they aes- medium itself." tionship with the photographs,
theticize environmental destruc- bringing the Athabasca tar sands
tion, rendering it beautiful” (17). If into the gallery space.
birds-eye views of environmental See Fig. 8, and notice how
destruction leave the viewer in a the contact prints look differ-
strange, ambiguous, and politi- ent than standard photographic
cally unprodictive awe, Cariou's prints. What do you notice? How
photographs ask the viewer to does Cariou prompt the viewer to
notice and feel more politically feel in their body and think while
productive responses like fear looking at this image? Notice the
or disgust. How is this materi- perspectival shifts between Fig.
ally executed? Cariou’s careful 8 and Fig. 9. Does the aerial view
Fig. 9: Syncrude Storage Tanks and
production process, intensified in Fig 9 have a distancing effect?
Infrastructure. 4"x6" Petrograph on by the risks of making of toxic Does Cariou's process change
Aluminum. V.1, 2014. images, stakes a clearer rhetorical how we would feel if the image
were in its raw form?

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography 53

52
 02 concurrent process
Photography can also be life, where the rhetorical stances
used as a concurrent process being conveyed are found inside
of rhetorical composition. In of the image via composition
the 'Disperson' case study that choices, interpreting the por-
follows this chapter, the pro- traits involves considering other
cess of a portrait photography aspects of photography—specif-
series is explicated in depth to ically how to handle outreach,
show how photography’s uses payment, physical space, and
can carry or facilitate an ongo- relationality, which affects how
ing process of rhetorical inquiry. the subjects feel in their bodies
The photographs in this series during the photoshoots. Molly
are the products of a weeks-long Pearson, who participated in the
process that explores what hap- photo series, connects Elaine
pens while aesthetically experi- "the images' visual Showalter’s notion of the ‘wild
menting with the rainbow symbol, appeal was zone’ to practices of queer por-
when criticisms of ‘rainbow cap- traiture: “In the face of calculated
italism’ reveal intrinsic problems
facilitated by the attempts to legislate LGBTQIA+
with the assimilation of the polit- process of explor- identities out of existence, many
ical symbol. What does it mean ing the rhetorics of us feel compelled to prove that
to render it aesthetically beautiful our identities are legitimate, and
when it has been so thoroughly of queer politics as that we are made real once our
critiqued? much as it was by social and political institutions
Producing quality, lovely making tried-and- let us in…but…we are already real,
portraits for the series' partic- even if we are only known to our-
ipants wasn’t omitted as a pri- true design choices." selves, the people close to us,
ority. Rather, the project shows and the people who revel in our
how quality aesthetic objects are shared wild zone. Our wild zones
produced not merely through make us real to ourselves and our
correct camera techniques, but communities.” In this sense, pho-
through examining how essen- tography is rhetorically used as a
tial aspects of photographic pro- technology that attunes partici-
cess ongoingly present oppor- pants to the legitimacy and tan-
Fig. 10: Abby, 2022 Fig. 11: Scotty, 2022 tunities for rhetorical interven- gibility of a shared reality.
tion. Meaning, the images' visual
appeal was facilitated by the pro-
cess of exploring the rhetorics of
queer politics as much as it was
by making tried-and-true design
choices. In contrast to this chap-
ter’s previous examination of still

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography 55

54
 03 reflexive process
In concluding this chapter, well, the lab’s printer was assumed
how can photographic process to be working as intended. Kodak,
reflexively comment on photog- the largest film distributor in the
Fig. 12: One of many Shirley Cards,
invented in 1940 and disseminated raphy technology itself—its histo- United States, thus established
throughout the 1950s ries and limitations? This chapter white skin as a literal normative
in Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide standard built into their practices
began by discussing rhetorical of print technology, actively per-
tension surrounding whether petuating and furthering racist
photography can promise unme- norms in the mid-20th century.
diated “real” representations of The result: photographs of peo-
experience. Sontag’s writing ple of color were typically over
about photography argues that or underexposed inaccurate por-
photographs say nothing with- trayals. Multiracial photographs,
out narrative or discourse—with- "Nothing compli- and photographs of communities
out rhetoric. Nothing complicates cates these kinds of with varying skin tones, could not
these kinds of questions more questions more than be accurately calibrated to the
than considering how photog- Shirley Card, leaving their iden-
raphy technology has inherent considering how tities devalued and unclear. It
biases that reflect its cultural photography tech- wasn’t until 1996 that Kodak offi-
context. The racist history of film nology has inherent cially updated their Shirley card to
photography prints, as one exam- a multiracial photograph of three
ple, demonstrates that seem- biases that reflect its women: Black, Asian and white
ingly depersonalized technolo- cultural context." (See Fig 13). Indeed, the updated
gies actively hold and perpetuate Shirley Card presented an infin-
subject positions. itesimal, incremental improve-
Historians of photography ment—how could adding two
urge awareness of the ‘Shirley skin tones possibly account for
Card’, small 4x6 prints used to the enormous variation in skin
calibrate Kodak labs’ printers tone present throughout the
throughout the 20th century. The world? How have photogra-
first Shirley Card was photograph phers worked with the technol-
of Kodak employee Shirley Page, ogy’s flaws to facilitate viewers’
a conventionally beautiful white increased awareness of its inter-
brunette woman by mid-cen- nal limitations?
tury racist standards (See Fig 12).
Shirley Cards, photos of hundreds
other unnamed women of similar
appearance, were disseminated
to all Kodak photo labs glob-
ally, throughout the 1950s and
Fig. 13: Multiracial Shirley Card, beyond (Del Barco). If a photo
created in 1996 print of Shirley came out looking

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography

56 57
 03 reflexive process cont.
Consider Carrie Mae series makes us “talk about how Even if Weems’s photo-
Weems’s Kitchen Table Series photographs are constructed, graphs are not, to her, critiques of
(1989-1990). Weems is one of since it uses the tropes of doc- the Shirley Card or finitely locat-
the most prolific portrait pho- umentary but in highly con- able aspects of racial politics,
tographers of the 20th century, structed, staged images. We can but broadly address the lack of
and Kitchen Table Series is the use it to talk about the relation- honest representations of Black
most famous of her many works. ships between men and women, subjecthood, the series insists
Her photographs depict both women and children, women and that we ask: why wasn’t this true
her and other recurring charac- women, and to have large discus- before, and what has this done
ters, consistent figures in a Black sions about the issue of the rep- to how we imagine relationships
American family whirling around resentations of blacks and their and shared experience? Among
the same kitchen table, photo- relationships. Maybe that’s one many causes found in the hydra
graphed from the same perspec- of the reasons why the work has of American racism, we dig up the
tive, taken over the course of an sort of stood the test of time and Shirley Card’s complicated his-
entire year. Each photograph is entered the culture in this unique tory. Weems’s photographs thus
paired with text that divulges inti- way: You can use it to have many, urgently demand that we look
mate details of the characters’ many kinds of discussions about at seemingly innocent technolo-
relationships. (See Figs. 14 and things that are going on in the gies like the camera and dispose
15) Notice how the photographs world today” (Eckardt). Weems’s of any preconceptions of passiv-
Fig. 14: “Untitled (Man and mirror).” walk the line between documen- resistance, here, to the idea that ity or universalism attached to it.
1990. tary and portraiture through the her photographs are exclusively How can a piece of technology
simple architecture of the kitchen “about” Blackness is reflective promise an unmediated repre-
table. of the Shirley Card’s positing of sentation of reality when it clearly
Working in the early 1990s, whiteness as a dominant, univer- participates and facilitates social
Weems’s work answers a need, sal norm. Weems wants her pho- biases? In practicing photography
amidst a culture not free from tographs to push us into ques- as a rhetorical process, how do
the Shirley Card’s influence, to tioning, as she states, how pho- one's photographs tell their view-
document and represent Black tographs are constructed. If we ers something about the technol-
American life more accurately. think of the Shirley Card as an ogy itself?
In Weems’s own words, she aspect of their construction, we
wanted to do so while telling sto- must consider how the technol-
ries about relationships broadly, ogy itself positions some expe-
posing a challenge to the Shirley riences as universal, and others,
Card’s problematic universaliz- especially those of marginalized
ing of white feminine identity as people, as deviant and particu-
a literal normativizing standard lar. Her photographs are about
for beauty and aesthetic qual- race and identity, but they also
ity. When asked about whether operate as reflexive commentary
her series is ‘about’ race (or, for on photography as a technology.
this section's purposes, could Weems's photographic process is
Fig. 15: "The Kitchen Table Series: be explicitly ‘about’ the Shirley one that exposes and comments
Text Sheet." 1990. Card’s history) Weems has clari- on the technology's limits.
fied in a recent interview that the

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Photography

58 59
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avishai, Tamar. “Episode 50: Carrie Mae Weems’ ‘Not Manet’s Type’ (1997).” The Lonely Palette, sea-
son 1, episode 50, Soundcloud, 2020.
Coleman, Kevin and Daniel James. ‘Capitalism and the Camera’ In Capitalism and the Camera: Essays
on Photography and Extraction. Edited by Kevin Coleman and Daniel James. New York, Verso, 2021.
Del Barco, Mandalit. “How Kodak’s Shirley Cards Set Photograph’s Skin-
Tone Standard” In NPR, 2014. [Link]
for-decades-kodak-s-shirley-cards-set-photography-s-skin-tone-standard
Eckardt, Stephanie. “Carrie Mae Weems Reflects on Her Seminal, Enduring
Kitchen Table Series” In W Magazine, 2016. [Link]
carrie-mae-weems-kitchen-table-series-today-interview
Lutz, Erik. ‘Poetics of the Everyday.’ In Poetics of the Everyday: Amateur Photography 1890-1970. 2019
Pearson, Molly M. “Our Wild Zones Make Us Real” In Sixty Inches from Center, 2022. [Link]
[Link]/our-wild-zones-make-us-real/
Simon, Taryn. Paperwork and the Will of Capital, edited by Aliza Watters. Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz,
2016.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. 1973. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977.
Ullrich, Polly. “Laura Letinsky” In Frieze. 2003. [Link]

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
While this chapter focuses on understanding visual rhetorics of photography, those interested in dig-
ging into design aspects and how-to guides can reference many resources available in The Compass
Lab.
Barbara London’s A Short Course in Digital Photography (textbook available in The Compass Lab)
An abundance of YouTube channels turns up by an easy search for specific questions. I like Jason
Hermann’s channel: [Link]
Adobe Lightroom is great for both file organization and some basic editing (available on Lab
computers)
Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Barthes, Roland. “Rhetoric of the Image” Image-Music-Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. New York:
Hill and Wang, 1977. 32-51

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

60
 Dispersion:
A Live Photography Series
Simone Sparks, M.A.

T
his chapter discusses rhetorical threads As a response, I sought to re-contextualize and In the second section, I’ll provide a mock-up of position through argumentative writing. Students
that inform a portrait photography series alchemize the rainbow symbol by conceptualiz- an in-class dissoi logoi activity, built from criti- might ask themselves how multimodal projects
I developed in collaboration with The ing a photographic process that doesn’t just take cal questions in queer studies that informed my can open up further lines of rhetorical ques-
Compass Lab. This section of Visual Rhetoric: A images of subjects, but gets curious about rhet- photography project’s rhetorics. By briefly con- tions by doing generative multimodal critique.
Field Guide offers a conversational touchstone orics of social, political, ecological, and economic densing the perspectives that have been ‘com- Meaning, if the traditional written argumentative
for how students might conceptualize projects ramifications built into the project. posted’ in the project, as is typically exercised in essay gifts the reader emotional relief through
using the Lab’s expansive digital photography kit. While not produced within an Eloquentia the dissoi logoi, I demonstrate how the various certainty, how can using aesthetics and multi-
I imagined this photography series as a response Perfecta course, this series appears here as perspectives and sources one is engaged with media enable specific and neatly supported crit-
to questions in gender studies regarding what a model for how students might experiment can actively, passively, and accidentally influence ical rhetorical stances, but still facilitate plural-
role the rainbow should play in LGBTQIA+ activ- with photography-as-multimodal-argumenta- identifiable design choices. Since the role of the istic responses, and a heightened sensitivity to
ism/identity/representation. While the rainbow tion following a dissoi logoi project. By detail- multimodal project is to mold, recast, or trans- multiplicity?
symbol has been and continues to be instru- ing my process of how I analyzed and practiced duce the insights of a dissoi logoi into a medium
mentalized by social forces like large corpora- photography as a rhetorical tool, I provide ref- other than the argumentative essay, this section
tions and the U.S. military as progressivist state- erence points for how students can question of the case study should help students identify
ments of ‘inclusivity’, folks in and outside of their own project designs. In the first section to how particular photographic design affordances
the LGBTQIA+ community struggle with how follow, I’ll go over the details of the portraiture can coalesce and integrate particular stances
to maintain queer politics’ originary radicalism. series as if a process log in the style of reporting. and thus ‘do’ rhetoric without explicitly stating a

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

61 Dispersion Case Study 62
 "I sought to recontextualize and alchemize
the rainbow symbol by conceptualizing a
photographic process that doesn’t just take
images of subjects, but gets curious about
rhetorics of social, political, ecological, and
economic ramifications built into the project."

Fig. 1: Linen backdrop with rainbow light bounced off of Mylar panels

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

Dispersion Case Study 64
63
 Dispersion:
Concept & Process

‘D
ispersion: A Live Portraiture Series’ ran simple backdrop as creative constraints, I saw an By opening myself up to these associated resis-
for the duration of Pride Month (June interesting opportunity for rhetorical intervention. tances to categorization, control, and specificity, I
2022) in St. Louis, MO. Some of the Portrait photography is often artificed and con- located exactly how I wanted to celebrate my sur-
image examples can be found in this chapter, but trived in its use of studio lighting and extensive rounding community during Pride Month as an
to look at more of the images and some documen- post-production edits. While a glamorized use of alternative to the rhetorics of inclusion. To con-
tation of the series, there is an Instagram account photography isn’t something I’m intrinsically tak- dense this into a cluster of rhetorical claims, the
(@[Link]) where you can browse the ing to task here, I grew to appreciate the idea that project seeks to subvert the capitalistic history
project and likely, depending when you are read- my project would instead require struggling with of portraiture itself,1 prompt participants to come
ing, see it continue to evolve. The rhetoric of this the drawbacks introduced by using natural sun- together in a space that plays with the rainbow
project primarily exists off-camera, which is why it’s light. Light, here, would be a way of playing with symbol as a nonhuman entity, and evokes what
cited in the ‘Photography’ chapter as an example the notion of visibility, as the visible light spec- we mean by the ‘natural’ as an essential facet of
of how photography can be used as a concurrent trum becomes an unpredictable nonhuman par- queer discourses.
process that continuously articulates a rhetorical ticipant in the series. The portraits’ sense of varia-
stance by putting it into practice. tion is fully dependent on constantly shifting light
This project began with an initial idea to pris- angles, the passage of time, weather conditions,
matically bounce rainbow light off of various studio space, and as I will later discuss—the use of
reflective surfaces to create a photography scene, reflective Mylar. Natural lighting is unpredictable
following my thinking about how photography and an inherently frustrating creative constraint Fig. 2: Alex
as a medium doesn’t just capture images, it is a in itself. And because much of our architectural
method of scribing or sculpting with light. I found spaces are not easy to access, trying to create this
the rhetorics of how I had to work with light due process proved fairly difficult, including weeks of
to the fact that fulfilling this vision required using explaining to rental companies and arts nonprof-
natural light to achieve a stunning visual effect, its that this project necessitates windows because
as studio lights wouldn’t produce bright enough it essentially works like a sundial. Of course, the
diffractions to significantly fill a photo backdrop. weather conditions of it cannot possibly be manip-
I initially considered this barrier an inconvenient ulated, and are rarely replicated exactly between
endpoint rendering the project impossible. By photoshoots.
instead pushing through such a problem through
committing to solely using natural lighting and a
1 SE E B E N B UR B R ID GE ’S PHOTOGRAPHY AFTER CAPITALISM

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide 66

65 Dispersion Case Study
 Fig. 4: Molly, with mint flowers

Fig. 3: Jeremiah

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

67 Dispersion Case Study 68
 Amidst the social/political systems that queer Portrait of a Lady on Fire departs from this preserve, and console.” In this light, working within
studies, activism, and art seeks to transform, I elegantly simple premise—that property relations the medium of portraiture means the ways in which
wanted this photography series to hew visible for both of these two women are endemic to the subjects are oppressed by certain acts of looking
queer space within portraiture’s planned per- act of looking and coextensive with the econ- comes up in their bodies—it is somatically recalled.
fectionism and historical use. In doing creative omy of portraiture—and proceeds by unraveling By this reasoning, I strove to create a collaborative,
research for the series, I thought about Céline the medium’s integral power dynamics that reify subject-followed process in my photoshoots, fol-
Sciamma’s representation of portraiture as an who is subject or object, viewer or viewed. One lowing Sciamma and the work of other LGBTQIA+
extension of 18th century gender politics (and among many ways that Sciamma achieves this portraitists innumerable.
the idea of the filmic ‘gaze’ generally) in Portrait is to stage Héloïse and Marianne actively collab- Critically working with portraiture additionally
of a Lady on Fire (2019). While the film is cer- orating on Héloïse’s portrait from pose to final meant that I needed to make the sessions not merely
tainly a love story at once, it’s also a meditation product, though Héloïse, of course, voluntarily relationally but financially accessible. My social media
on the power dynamics of portraiture and the cooperates only to prolong Marianne’s com- outreach made it explicit that the needs of marginal-
act of looking within economies that oppress pany (fig. 5). Through subverting the one-direc- ized people within the LGBTQIA+ community would
women. Portraiture, for Sciamma’s protagonist tional, voyeuristic act of portraiture as a collabo- be actively cared and accounted for. In doing so, I
Marianne, is a means for securing her own prop- rative process and fleeting romantic relationship, sought to disempower the objectifying dynamic of
erty and agency; Marianne is a portrait painter Sciamma subverts the portraitist’s individualistic portraiture not just through aesthetic choices like
set to inherit her father’s studio, which ensures power dynamic and shows the pair temporarily using natural light and making minimal edits to the
her lifelong financial independence. Sciamma exercising self-sovereignty and sexual consent final images, but through lots of work off-camera. I
stages the inverse situation through the film’s within an inherently non-consensual situation. made it a goal to hold a safe and supportive space
love interest Héloïse. Héloïse has refused to pose Indeed, their collaboration accepts and facilitates to document the lives of people in my local com-
for a portrait necessary to seal her betrothal, so their romantic relationship’s inevitable demise, munity as they are, which meant bringing my prior
Héloïse’s mother, desperate to finalize the agree- but by complicating relational power dynamics research on bodywork and somatics into the pro-
ment, employs Marianne to secretly create a por- through the medium of portraiture (and, meta-tex- cess. By ensuring that the project accommodates Fig. 6: reptilia; under direct
sunlight
trait by night, in isolation, without Héloïse’s notice. tually, film) Sciamma spins a tale of “the erotic, for financial accessibility through pitching my project
Portraiture itself, then, is treated as a material electric connection between women when they as a research project with The Compass Lab and
expression of Héloïse’s gendered status as social find their desire for creative experience fulfilled making my sessions entirely donation-based, I was
currency between two families. in each other…[and] the powers of art to validate, able to explicitly offer portrait sessions to predomi-
nantly working-class LGBTQIA+ folks locally. It is only
through full investment in the St. Louis community
that this project was possible, raising that rhetoric
projects are successful when they become granu-
larly locally oriented and interested in an immedi-
ate end, an aid in resisting the urge to think on too-
large a scale.

Fig. 5: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), 1: 35: 00.

Héloïse adds the final touches to her portrait,
while questioning finality. Fig. 7: Nelly

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide 70

69 Dispersion Case Study
 Fig. 8: Jimi Hendrix from Ira
Cohen's The Mylar Chamber

One last design choice in my process worth men- causing them to play with the light or adjust their
tioning is the use of reflective Mylar, a metallized poses to be moved by it. A quip I found after my
plastic film used to make stuff like foil balloons and own project’s conclusion, from one of Cohen’s inter-
space blanket material, to diffract the rainbow light. views, serendipitously resonates: “Sometimes an
As opposed to mirrors or other reflective surfaces image would be there, and it would be something
that would bounce the rainbow light more stati- that would make you almost go mad to be able
cally, the Mylar introduces flexibility and variation. even to see such a thing with your eyes! Then you
Following my rhetorical interest in finding ways to would want to photograph it, and if you weren’t
critically interact with portraiture, I wanted to create quick enough there would be a slight vibration and
a scene that would inspire movement and fluidity the Mylar would ripple into some other shape and
to bring energy to portraiture’s stillness. My method you would lose that image completely…Working in
was partly inspired by Ira Cohen’s use of Mylar in this kind of way, there are a lot of elements…things
his series The Mylar Chamber, whose hallucinatory that you might want to keep out that accidentally
and metamorphic images of famous artists in the creep in.” (Landgarten, 17) Cohen’s words echo a
1960s ordained Mylar a commonplace photography crucial point that students should become famil-
prop (fig. 8). The Mylar’s tendency to ripple at the iar with: working with visual mediums is equally, if
slightest touch, breeze, even an intentional adjust- not more, about process as product. The medium
ment made it so the rainbow light bounced with an is not a finite category that holds an argument like
unpredictable, diffused, diffracted, and occasion- a pail of water. Depending on how the medium is
ally water-like effect. Because I had to work with critically used, a rhetorical stance is ever subject
the windows open to get a good angle from the to change. Fig. 9: Dune; pre-op top surgery
sun, windy days caused the Mylar light beams to documentation
quiver and snake across a subject’s face or body,

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

71 Dispersion Case Study 72
 world would throw at me. That’s why, this Pride colors of the original rainbow flag. The original
month, I’m partnering with Lockheed-Martin” (@ flag was designed by Gilbert Baker who “hand-
MajorPhilebrity). The dark comedy is of course all dyed and stitched together its eight stripes in
too real—the annual pageantries of faux-solidar- 1978 after Harvey Milk requested an emblem
ity performed by corporate defense contractors for the movement” (Haag), and Daniel Quasar’s
like Lockheed Martin, other large-scale corpo- flag was designed in 2018 to better visualize the
rations, and branches of the United States DoD current needs of people of color and trans peo-
pen increasingly darker timelines for the rainbow ple in the community (figs. 10 and 11). It could
as a symbolic manifesto of a queer radicalism appear that the Biden administration’s use of

In-Class Activity:
worth fighting for. Many queer folks tiredly spec- Daniel Quasar’s flag acknowledges the struggles
tate as a historical symbol of the community’s of trans folks and people of color, as opposed
political power is digested and spat out by insti- to the Trump administration’s surely disgruntled
tutions of state and economic power that cash show of solidarity which used Baker’s flag, which

Mocking-up a dissoi logoi response to

out at the expense of grassroots organizations, has been critiqued as a dated symbol. Both the
artists, nonprofits, and even small businesses DoD’s uses of the rainbow flag might be consid-
that might better autonomously support and ered relatively progressivist acts, displaying the

‘Rainbow Capitalism’ advocate for the material needs of queer peo-

ple in their communities. Crucially, this is by no
means a new phenomenon. In the undertow of
fulfillment of a more inclusive American identity.
But, in either case, it’s urgent to doubt whether
marginalized folks at home or abroad bask in
the recently popularized buzzword ‘rainbow capi- the warmth of symbolic historical progress by
talism’ and this year’s Twitter chaff is an ever-ex- knowing they are surveilled and policed by more
panding body of queer scholarship and activism diverse and inclusive teams working on behalf
scrutinizing the dynamics of how queer symbols, of the same hyper-militarized police state? In
identities, and language are co-opted by institu- either case, it comes as a small delight that June,
tions with social and economic power for nor- Twitter was briefly aflame with such absurdity/

I
mativizing aims. Perhaps the most notable aca- If we take Puar’s argument about ‘homonation-
n order to explicate why my photography whose possible responses might differ, may look
demic piece analyzing this intersection is Jasbir alism’, and this broader issue in LGBTQIA+ dis-
series reappropriates and alchemizes the rain- something like what proceeds. As students read,
Puar’s Terrorist Assemblages, which does not courses seriously, how should we interact with
bow symbol using design choices inclusive of, they have the opportunity to explicate, compli-
use the term ‘rainbow capitalism’ but discusses and imagine the rainbow symbol? What are
but not limited to, those listed above, this sec- cate, and fill in the positions, and question how
an analogous yet more specific political keyword actionable next steps?
tion includes a mock-up of a possible dissoi logoi else they could have tackled the problem.
‘homonationalism’, a kind of national acceptance Dissoi logoi mockup activity: Positions 1-3
project theoretically interested in determining a In a much-awaited moment of social media con-
sensus andTITLE 1 June 2022 gave
TITLE 2 ‘this of homosexuality that “corresponds with the below have been outlined by me, based off of my
response to ‘rainbow capitalism’, a buzzword of catharsis, us the
coming out of the exceptionalism of American own prior research. Students can ask themselves
rising popularity that describes the co-optation Pride Month I’m partnering with’ Twitter bit –
empire” (2). Puar’s thesis, among other theorists questions like: What would a fourth position be?
(or, some might say, the ever-present political some might say all the social media riffing repre-
interested in how queer identity is strategically How do the different positions understand the
complicity) of the rainbow flag. It is in this ideo- sented the LGBTQIA+ community’s most wide-
logical milieu of how the rainbow is utilized ITEM
as a 1 spread critical response to the phenomenon of
deployed by normativizing state forces to con- rhetorical questions at play differently? What is
struct Othered subjects internationally, is where their proximity to each other? How should they
symbol that the photography project ‘Dispersion: ‘rainbow capitalism’ post-Obergefell to date.1
the varying positions arranged in this dissoi logoi be revised?
A Live Portrait Series’ exists. If this project were a What does it matter what ideological lines divide
draft begin the conversation. »   Position 1: We should abandon the rainbow
dissoi logoi, it wouldn’t be up for debate whether the community, when we can all make a mock-
Sans social media comedy, one of the entirely because the symbol has become
the co-optation of the rainbow as a political sym- ery of how the Target rainbow merchandise
bol is an existing trend or is ultimately goodITEMor 2 feels a little insincere? One of the earliest itera-
most straightforward and recent examples of co-opted by the military industrial complex
this strategic use of the rainbow symbol is Daniel and has emerged from a particular context in
bad, it would be engaged in discerning what tions spurring the farce towards trending status
Quasar’s redesigned Pride flag posted on the the United States. Not only has it lost present
value the rainbow flag continues to hold through reads, “As a gay kid, I grew up never feeling like
CIA’s social media this past June. Proponents of political radicality, but it also presents a bar-
the process of weighing responses to its histor- I was properly armed to take on the battles the
universalism or a politics of inclusion might con- rier to international sovereignty and solidar-
ical development in light of this problem. So, a
ITEM
2 S EE S H AN E O ’ N EI L L ’ S NYT AR T I C L E " ‘ T H I S P R I D E sider this statement a representation of prog- ity. The rainbow projects a Westernized polit-
condensed dissoi logoi that proceeds from a 3 M O N T H I ’ M P AR T N ER I N G WI T H ’ M EM ES AR E C O M I N G OUT
ress—recall the NSA’s rainbow-struck window- ical context outward into the world.
mutually agreed upon contentious point, but S T R O N G ” F O R M O R E EX AM P L ES , H T T P S ://WWW.N Y T I M E S.
C O M /2 02 2 /06 /03 /S T Y L E/P R I D E-M O N T H -M EM ES .H T M L
panes three years earlier, which featured the six

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide 74

Dispersion Case Study
73
 »  
Position 2: We should hold onto the beloved
symbol of the rainbow, and continue to
refashion it over and over again to represent

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
the plural stances within and outside of the
community, even if corporations and wings of
the military industrial complex are bound to
misuse it. The rainbow still represents a liber-
atory dream not yet delivered.
»  
Position 3: The inherent anthropocentrism

01. 02.
of the rainbow flag is tied to the fallibility of
human visibility and the politics that arise
from it. We should challenge our sense of
control over the symbol. It, as an extension
of the natural world, moves us and creates
meaning by exposing our literal narrow win-
dow of perception, as much as we move it Audience? Design?
and create meaning towards our own anthro- » What stakeholder groups does the » What key terms or design elements
pocentric political ends. author identify? of photography does the author
»  
Position 4: (?) » How can we describe the project’s specifically discuss?
audiences? » How does the author connect pho-
» How does the project engage with tographic design choices to rhetori-
its audiences? cal stances?
» What other ways of making claims
does photography enable?

Fig. 10: Progress Pride flag,

designed by Daniel Quasar
(2018)
03.
Argumentation?
04.
Alternatives?
» How are multiple kinds of cultural » Can you identify alternative ways
resources and references drawn upon photography could have been used to
to map an ongoing conversation? make similar claims?
» How does the author strategically ap- » Are any design elements not dis-
proach the dissoi logoi project? Why cussed that could have been included?
is the author's approach useful? » What other projects could respond to
» To craft a fourth stance, how can analogous of questions?
medium specificity factor in?

Fig. 11: Gilbert Baker hand-

making flags he originally
designed for an installation
in 1998

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide Dispersion Case Study 76

75
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
@MajorPhilebrity. As a gay kid, I grew up never feeling like I was properly armed to take on the
battles the world would throw at me. That’s why, this Pride month, I’m partnering with Lockheed-
Martin.“ Twitter, 1 June 2022, [Link]
Haag, Matthew. “Gilbert Baker, Gay Activist Who Created the Rainbow Flag, Dies at 65.” The New
York Times. 31, Mar. 2017, [Link]
[Link]
Landgarten, Ira. “In Conversation with Ira.” The Mylar Chamber, edited by Allen Graubard. Fulgur
Press, 2019, 13-20.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Directed by Céline Sciamma, Neon, 2019.
Puar, Jasbir K. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Duke University Press 2007.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Pearson, Molly (Photographed above). ‘Our Wild Zones Make Us Real’ at [Link]
[Link]/our-wild-zones-make-us-real/.
Laskar, Pia, Anna Johansson & Diana Mulinari: “Decolonising the Rainbow Flag”, Culture Unbound,
Volume 8, issue 3, 2016: 193–216. Published by Linköping University Electronic Press

COMPASS LAB MATERIALS USED

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOW TO USE THIS EQUIPMENT, THE COMPASS LAB HAS AN EXTENSIVE LIBRARY OF
RESOURCES AND INSTRUCTOR ASSISTANCE TO HELP YOU GET STARTED.

» Sony A7iii mirrorless camera kit

» Adobe Lightroom

» Light reflector and reflector stand/arm

Visual Rhetoric: A Field Guide

77