The Language of Pictures in Print Media Advertising

Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 The importance of pictures
1.2 Reasons for the analysis of ads
1.3 Methodology

2 Theory
2.1 Semiotics
2.2 Van Gogh and Critical Discourse Analysis
2.3 The creation of signs and their meaning
2.4 Coding and non - linear Reading of Pictures
2.5 Vectors
2.6 Transactional Processes
2.7 Reactional processes
2.8 The difference between man and woman in reactional processes
2.9 The Demand
2.10 The Offer
2.11 Creating the You
2.12 The analytical process
2.13 Modality
2.13.1 Situational Modality
2.13.2 Modality of time
2.14 Classificational processes
2.15 Parallelism
2.16 Deviation and foregrounding
2.17 Anchorage
2.18 The Symbolic Attributive Process
2.18.1 The four Criteria of Symbolic Attributes
2.19 The Symbolic Suggestive Process
2.20 Embedding
2.21 Relay
2.22 Social Distance
2.23 Perspective and angle
2.24 Different forms of angles
2.24.1 Oblique and frontal angle
2.24.2 Power and vertical angle
2.25 Fusion
2.26 Indexical and Iconic Relationships
2.27 Arguments
2.27.1 Premises
2.27.2 Missing Premises

3 Analysis
3.1 Choice of material

4 The Helsinki Series

5 The Helsinki Series: ‚See Helsinki‘
5.1 Description of the picture
5.2 Vectors
5.3 Situational Modality
5.4 Setting
5.5 The Reactional Process
5.6 Carriers
5.7 Symbolic Attributive Processes
5.7.1 Criteria One and Three
5.7.2 Criteria Two and Four
5.8 Sensual Modality
5.9 Signifiers and Signifieds
5.10 Fusion
5.11 Choice of angle and perspective
5.12 Head and Body Copy
5.13 Text
5.14 Metaphorical woman and setting
5.15 Parallelism
5.15.1 Parallelism of picture and text
5.15.2 Parallelism between text and picture
5.15.3 Parallelism between text and text
5.15.4 Incomplete arguments
5.15.5 The missing premises of the incomplete arguments related to ‚seeing‘

6 The Helsinki Series: Hear Helsinki
6.1 Description of the picture
6.2 A Vector and a Reactional Process
6.3 Situational modality
6.4 Sensual modality
6.5 Setting
6.6 Carriers
6.7 The Symbolic Attributive process
6.8 The Characteristics of the Symbolic Attributive Process involved
6.9 The Symbolic Suggestive Process – A Deciphering by Relay
6.10 Fusion
6.11 The you in the ad
6.12 Social Distance
6.13 Perspective and Angle
6.14 Text
6.15 Relay
6.16 The analytical process
6.17 Metaphorical Taxonomies
6.18 Missing premises

7 Results of the Helsinki Ad Series
7.1 The Pattern of the Helsinki Ads
7.2 The elements of the Helsinki Ad – Layout

8 The Ford Ad Series: ‚Introductory File Ad‘
8.1 Modality, Iconicity, Perspective, Creating the You
8.2 Situational Modality
8.3 Taxonomies
8.3.1 Left page
8.3.2 Right page

9 The Ford Series: ‚Henry Ford Ad‘
9.1 At the back of the Time Earth Day 2000 Issue:
9.2 A Vector
9.3 Modality, Point of View, Setting
9.3.1 Situational Modality
9.3.2 Setting
9.4 Ford the Reacter
9.5 Carriers and the historical point of view in time
9.6 Symbolic Suggestiveness
9.6.1 Ford as an icon
9.7 Relay and Ford Motor Company
9.8 Relay
9.9 Text
9.10 Taxonomies on the lexical level
9.11 Subordinate Expressions related to ‘idea’

10 The Ford Series: ‚Ingenuity at work‘
10.1 Description
10.2 Situational Modality
10.3 Social Distance, Perspective and Angle
10.4 Reactional Processes
10.5 Analytical Features
10.6 Relay and Symbolic Suggestiveness
10.7 Metonymy and Symbolic Suggestiveness
10.8 Text

11 The Ford Series: ‚Concluding File Ad‘

12 The Ford Series: ‚Job Done Ad‘
12.1 Analysis of the processes working in ‚Job Done‘

13 Results of the Ford Ad Series
13.1 The Concept of the Ford Ads
13.2 The standard elements of the layout
13.3 The Pattern of the Ford Ads

14 Conclusion

15 Deutsche Zusammenfassung
15.1 Vorgangsweise und Ziel
15.2 Materialauswahl
15.3 Ergebnisse
15.3.1 Helsinki Serie
15.3.2 Ford Serie
15.4 Ein Beispiel einer Werbeanalyse
15.4.1 Die Codierung von Bild und Text
15.4.2 Relay
15.4.3 Parallelismen
15.4.4 Text der ‘Henry Ford’ Werbung
15.4.5 Begriffe, die sich auf Idee beziehen
15.5 Schluß

1 Introduction

1.1 The importance of pictures

Today we observe a development in which the role of language is steadily decreasing whereas the impact of pictures is increasing. This goes hand in hand with a development in which information relies more and more on visual concepts. More and more language takes the part of explaining how to read the visual presentations, more and more language takes the part of providing the background information which is necessary to understand the meaning of the visual foreground.

Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 26) argue that

Today, we seem to move towards a decrease of control over language (e.g. the greater variety of accents allowed on the public media, the increasing poblems in enforcing normative spelling), and towards an increase in codification and control over the visual (e.g. the use of image banks from which ready-made images can be drawn for the constuction of visual texts, and, generally, the effect of computer imaging technology).

Although we may be aware of this tendency, we have not been taught in school how to read visual concepts and so most of us share some degree of illiteracy concerning a critical reading of information presented by images. This is remarkable because we all agree about their influence on our lives but at the same time when we do not develop analytical tools for describing what kinds of strategies, what kinds of concepts are working in visual presentations of information. We tend to overlook the importance of visual concepts simply because we generally do not know enough about their code.

1.2 Reasons for the analysis of ads

This paper analyses photos and language which are parts of ads, which have definitely been designed for transferring messages because they have been made to advertise one specific product. Images and the text of advertisements never are casual products like family pictures. Although the photo in the family album is coded its coding is less elaborated than the coding of pictures in ads. We have to keep in mind that many people, experts in advertising, experts in public relations were involved in the process of designing an ad before we can look at the final result. This is why ads are definitely conceptually designed because they are meant to create a specific meaning in the viewer’s mind. It is a truism that no visual concept, no photo of an ad was chosen by chance. Photographs and language of ads are more likely to have been carefully constructed and selected according to the meaning they are supposed to create. This is why the analysis of ads provides an extremely effective means for the deciphering of the constructive code behind them.

A second important reason for the analysis of ads is that our present culture is a culture which is heavily influenced by ads. On television, in the cinema, in the newspaper, in videoclips, on walls, on cars; ads are surrounding us in contemporary society. To say it with the words of Guy Cook (1992: 13):

In contemporary capitalist society, advertising is everywhere. We cannot walk down the street, shop, watch television, go through our mail, read a newspaper or take a train without encountering it. Whether we are alone, with our friends or family, or in a crowd, advertising is always with us, if only on the label of something we are using. Given this ubiquity, it is strange that many people are reluctant to pay attention to ads.

1.3 Methodology

In the theoretical part of my paper I introduce linguistic tools which I found useful for a better understanding of ads. These tools were mainly taken and chosen from four books the names of which are: Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design(1998) by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Words in Ads(1994) by Greg Myers, The Discourse of Advertising(1992) by Guy Cook and Logical Self Defence(1994) by Anthony Blair and Ralph Johnson.

In the Analysis Part of my paper these tools will be used to look behind the construction of ads. They will be used to explain the processes which create meanings in ads by investigating the complex interplay between pictures and text. In this respect, I want to enable the reader to get a better understanding of the visual concepts, the coding behind the pictures in ads. (This coding of pictures in my analysis, of course, has always to be seen together with the accompanying text.)

Both series of ads which are analysed in the analytical part were taken from the European Edition of the Time Magazine which I regard as a representative source of print media advertising. The two series of ads which I chose for the analysis were arbitrarily chosen but I have to say that they impressed me somehow and so I wanted to know more about the way they created this fascination in my mind. One could say that I wanted to know more about the language of the visual in these ads, that I wanted to know more about the pictures, the conceptual layout and design which is behind them.

For the analysis I chose two series of ads because of my assumption that this ought to be highly effective in order to decipher the code behind the ads. As each single ad of a series advertises the same product the conceptual design of the single ads should reveal a similar pattern. Therefore, seen from a linguistic point of view, these ads would show parallel structures. The parallelism of a series of ads should result in a repetition of their codes in one or the other way. This is why it should be easier to detect the coding of ads by analysing a series.

As I will say in the theortical part the reading of pictures usually is non-linear and so the explanations which I will give in the analytical part have to be regarded as based on my subjective point of view. That the analysis of pictures in general is complex is said by Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 2) when they claim that there is only a limited analogy between the grammar of language and the grammar of visual design:

The analogy with language does not imply, however, that visual structures are like linguistic structures. The relation is much more general. Visual structures realize meanings as linguistic structures do also, and thereby point to different interpretations of experience and different forms of social interaction.The meanings which can be realized in language and in visual communication overlap in part, that is, some things can be expressed both visually and verbally; and in part they diverge – some things can be’said‘ only visually, others only verbally. But even when something can be ‚said‘ both visually and verbally the way in which it will be said is different.

2 Theory

This chapter provides a general introduction into fields of linguistic research and linguistic devices. The theory and the devices which are presented – together with examples which are given - shall enable the reader to follow my argumentations in the analytical part of this paper.

2.1 Semiotics

Semiotics is the science of signs and their meanings. According to Saussure (cf Nöth 1975: 7) the meaning of signs is arbitrary. One basic method of explainig the way meaning is created by signs is the concept of signifier and signified. The concept of the signifier refers to the physical appearance of a sign, the concept of the signified refers to the meaning of a sign. Dyer (1995: 118) says that a „ sign is made up of the signifier, a material vehicle, and the signified, a mental concept or reference. A signifier has potential but not an actual meaning, whereas the signified is the concept of meaning which the signifier refers to.“

These signs can be represented by different means. A word is a sign. The word in itself represents the signifier and the meaning of the word represents its signified. Saussure’s concept of signs defines each object which is based on a society, a culture, as a sign which carries a specific meaning. With regard to this definition of signs many people will be surprised when realising that each object, each product of a culture can be regarded as a sign.

Signs which are not based on language are often represented by means of visual communication such as facial expressions or by signs which the reader who is not aquainted with linguistic theories would generally regard as symbols. With regard to Saussure‘s definition of Semiotics the sad look of a woman (a facial expression) and the big car of the business man (a symbol of social status) both transfer meaning and belong to the class of signs.

A painting by Van Gogh is also a sign. It signifies – among other things - a specific period in European art history. The extraordinarily high prize of this painting is a sign reflecting the meaning and the appreciation in today’s society. And, furthermore, the painting is coded in terms of the elements which are to find in it. The technique, the style of the painting indicates the period when the painting was made. The picture is also coded because of the clothing the people may wear in Van Gogh’s paintings (This clothing can indicate the social class of the wearer as well as the period of the century in which the painting was made). The picture is also coded because of the situation which is portrayed (A situation in itself is coded because of the action which is performed). A situation which involves people, for example, can be stereotypical for a situation in everyday’s life at the period of time and place which is portrayed by a painting. The same, of course, is true of photographs (photographs represent signs which signify that photographing has already been invented by a culture, and this, in return, signifies, that the society in which the photograph was taken has the capacity of producing cameras).

2.2 Van Gogh and Critical Discourse Analysis

I have mentioned that a painting by Van Gogh can be coded in many ways. I have said that the painting is coded with regard to the society in which it was produced. I have said that the style of the painter, the clothing of the people which are portrayed can indicate the period of time and the society which are depicted by the painting. With regard to this coding a painting, a picture, each text has to be seen as a socially determined product.

Critical Discourse Analysis is concerned with the influence of society regarding communication. It is concerned with the societal impact which humans experience in their lives because this impact is mirrored by the values and attitudes which can be detected in each act of communication. Kring (quoted in Wodak 1995: 204) argues that Discourse Analysis in a wider sense is concerned with „a sociologically informed construction of society“.

Today many linguists believe that the research in Critical Discourse Analysis has to be interdisciplinary because of the complex power relationships which are reflected in communication. Wodak (1995: 206) says that „social phenomena are too complex to be dealt with by only one field.“ So,

Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis investigate language behaviour in every day situations of immediate and actual social relevance: institutional discourse, school textbooks, minority problems, all kinds of discrimination, etc. Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis are thus problem-oriented, which means they aim less to contribute to a specific discipline, paradigm, school or discourse theory, than to address what they believe to be pressing social isssues which they hope to understand better, and possibly change, through their analysis. (Wodak 1995: 206)

In this paper what is called language behaviour in the quotation is represented by the discourse of advertising which comprises language and pictures. Pictures, which transfer meaning on a non-verbal level, can be seen as a specific kind of language which is based on visual communication only.

2.3 The creation of signs and their meaning

I have mentioned that the meaning of a sign is arbitrarily defined. When Dyer (1995: 118) says that ‚a signifier has potential‘, then she wants to say that the meaning of a signifier is established by social convention. Consequently, as the meaning of a sign is created by convention, convention has the potential to change the meaning, the signified, as well as convention will create new signs and meanings.

This is what is persued by strategies which aim at the creation of new meanings, which aim at attributing meaning such as desirable qualities to things or products which so become signs because they carry this attributed meaning. This is done in advertising companies where numberous people are permanently thinking about the creation of signifieds for the products which are to be advertised.

As I have mentioned, written language, photographs or objects can be regarded as signs. If these signs are blended together in a new elaborate signifier as it is done int the carefully constructed text and design of an ad in a print magazine, then this interplay between picture and text creates meaning which refers to the product which is advertised. This means that the complex interplay between text and picture creates meaning in itself and establishes a new signified. An ad, with the elements which are found in it, is a new signifier signifying the reasons for buying the advertised product.

2.4 Coding and non - linear Reading of Pictures

I have mentioned that pictures are coded although we tend to overlook the code. This is mainly because pictures transfer meaning on the non-verbal level and partly because we are not used to analyse how messages and information is transferred by them. But there is also another reason why we are sometimes not so sure about the coding of pictures.

Although devices like pictures in ads are meant to transfer specific messages, the readers‘ interpretations concerning the meaning of a picture, the individual readings of these pictures may vary. This is because the reading of a non-verbal code relies on the individual experience of the receiver of its message. The associations the reader may have when looking at the picture depends on his or her social surroundings, on her or his education. This leaves room for several individual interpretations, and, consequently may lead to different results.

According to a reader’s personal experience a picture tells a story which is based on the elements which are to find in it. These elements (things like the setting, the situation, the clothing of the people portrayed, the text ...) are interpreted by the reader in order to form a story, one possible reading of the meaning of the picture. When doing this, the reader puts the elements of a picture (whithout or with text) in a logical order. It is this arrangement and interpretation of elements which represents the source of different reader - based meanings. This means that the reading of pictures or ads is not linear. Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 25) argue that the readers „can choose the order in which they want to deal with the various elements: the page [the ad] is ‚non-linear‘. It does not impose a sequential structure.“

2.5 Vectors

The identification of Vectors is a method to analize what kind of action, what kind of story a picture is telling. Kress and van Leeuwen say that „What in language is realized by words of the category ‘action verbs‘ is realized in pictures by elements that can be formally defined as vectors.“ But how do these vectors work? Vectors refer to Actors and Goals. Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 44) give an example with a picture in which Aboriginals are stalked by the British. They say that the picture “relates the British and the Aboriginals through a transactional scheme in which the British play the role of Actor, the element that does the deed, and the Aborigines the role of Goal, the element to which the deed is done – the British stalk the Aborigines one could say“

(Kress and van Leuwen 1998: 44).

‚The British used guns‘ (Kress and van Leeuwen 1998:43) and the schematic drawing of ‚TheBritish used guns‘ (Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 47)

Furthermore they point out that the picture

also relates the landscape to the British and the Aborigines in a locative way (the British and the Aborigines are in the landscape), and the gun to the British in an instrumental way (the British stalk the Aborigines with their guns).These relations can be transformed into linguistic form, as we have just done, but the point is that here they are realized by pictorial means. The transactional relation between the British and the Aborigines is realized by the vector that links them, namely the oblique line formed by the glances and outstretched arms of the British and by their guns. (Kress and van Leuwen 1998: 44)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

2.7 Reactional processes

In a reactional process we do not speak of Actors and Goals but we speak of Reacters and Phenomena. The difference between the former pair of terms and the latter is that in reactional processes the action is performed by a gaze or an eyeline. As a result, the Reacter has to be a human being, an animal or something similar which can be associated with a creature. The lights of a car, for example, can be interpreted as the eyes of a Reacter. A Reacter has to be “a creature with visible eyes that have distinct pupils, [...] capable of facial expression. The Phenomena may be formed either by another participant, the participant at whom or which the Reacter is looking, or by a whole visual proposition, for example a transactional structure.“(Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 64) Just like with Actor and Goal the process of Reacter and Phenomena can bei either transactional or not.

In this ad the man drinking water becomes the Phenomenon of the woman’s gaze.

(Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 64)

2.8 The difference between man and woman in reactional processes

As I have said reactional processes may be transactional or not. If they are non-transactional then there is no Phenomenon at which the Reacter is looking. If non-transactional reactional processes involve either woman or man this may look different however. The look of the participants seems to be largely dependent on their sex. Society seems to associate sex, gaze and facial expression as gender-based. That’s why in general, gazes of women or men, if transactional or not, are depicted differently. Women’s gazes tend to be more withdrawn than those of men, men’s gazes tend to be more determined.

Kress and Leuwen (1998: 66) say about the gaze that if „the Reacters in such pictures are women, they often seem to gaze into the middle distance, as if they have mentally withdrawn from their immediate surroundings. If they are men, they tend to have their eyes firmly fixed on far horizons“.

This different representations of woman‘s and man’s gazes may obviously lead to different forms of identification with a portrayed participant in a picture. Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 66) say: „It is then left to the viewer to imagine what they are thinking about or looking at, and this can create a powerful sense of empathy or identification with the represented participant.“

Examples of a withdrawn female gaze according to Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 66)

together with a recently published example of a withdrawn female gaze.(tvmedia, number 10, 2001)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

2.9 The Demand

If a person or an animal looks directly into the viewer’s eyes or looks away, this difference results in different kinds of social relationships. Different in so far as the gaze into one’s eyes results in a personal reaction, a response to this gaze. Whereas a gaze into the viewer’s eyes addresses him or her directly, whereas this action immediately builds up some kind of personal relationship, a look past the viewer does not demand such a response. In order to create such reactions in viewers, the participants have to be human, animal-like or anthropomorphized. The lights of a car, for instance, can also have a gaze-effect on the viewer because they can appear similar to eyes. There are, of course, many different ways of building up relationships between picture and viewer. Many levels ranging from a very intimate reaction of the viewer to a very neutral, objective one are possible.

Kress and van Leeuwen (1998: 123) argue that the producer of a picture which is designed for a specific purpose

uses the image to do something to the viewer. It is for this reason that we have called this kind of image a Demand: the participant’s gaze (and the gesture, if present) demands something from the viewer, demands that the viewer enters into some kind of imaginary relation with him or her. Exactly what kind of relation is established is then signified by other means, for instance by the facial expression of the represented participants. They may smile, in which case the viewer is asked to enter into a relation of social affinity with them; they may stare at the viewer with cold disdain, in which case the viewer is asked to relate to them, perhaps, as an inferior relates to a superior; they may seductively pout at the viewer, in which case the viewer is asked to desire them. The same applies to gestures.

The concept of the Demand was invented in the 15th century when a painting by Jan van Eyck used this strategy for the first time in the history of art. According to Panofsky (cf 1953: 198) the Demand originated in self-portraits and was a great innovation in art:

In 1433 Jan van Eyck made one of the great discoveries in portraiture. In the protrait of a ‚Man in a Red Turban‘, completed on October 21 of that year, the glance of the sitter is turned out of the picture and sharply focussed on the beholder with an air of skepticism intensified by the expression of the thin mouth with its slightly compressed corners. For the first time the sitter seeks to establish direct contact with the spectator ... We feel observed and scrutinized by a wakeful intelligence.

(Panofsky 1953: 198)

illustration not visible in this excerpt

From the fifteenth century onwards to the present date the concept of involving the viewer of a picture by a gaze watching him or her, by a Demand, has not changed as this topical advertisement shows.

2.10 The Offer

This direct visual address is what Kress and Leuwen call a Demand. What happens, however, if the viewer is not directly addressed, if no personal relationship is built up? This construction, where the viewer is subject, not object, is what is called an Offer. In an Offer the „viewer’s role is that of an invisible onlooker. All images which do not contain human or quasi-human participants looking directly at the viewer are of this kind.“ And, furthermore, Kress and Leuwen (1998: 124) argue that an offer „offers the represented participants to the viewer as items of information, objects of contemplation, impersonally, as though they were specimens in a display case.“ That’s why the concept of the Offer is essential for many school and picture books in which information has to be passed on most efficiently.

2.11 Creating the You

In the chapter ‚Why ads use everyday talk‘, Myers (1994: 106) points out that a particularly efficient strategy of ads is to address their audience by you. People seem to prefer a situation in which they are personally addressed by ads to a situation in which they are given pure arguments informing them about the qualities of the advertised products. This is why the watching of a spot on television which uses everyday talk to sell a washing powder has proven more effective than a scientific report concerning the qualities of the washingpowder. Everyday talk seems to be an argument in itself for the buying of a product. This is why ads often create a situation in which the audience feels personally addressed.

A direct address and the suggestion of everyday-talk seem to be more persuasive and convincing than clearly structured arguments. Myers (1994: 109) says that it „may take just a quoted headline and a photograph to suggest everyday talk, even when the body copy is a straight sales pitch“. Then he gives an example of an English government ad which works exactly with this strategy. This ad creates a you for an unemployed woman which talks to a government adviser. Both participants become a we in the copy which suggests everyday talk. The other ad on the next page uses the strategy of addressing its audience by you and shows several different Offers with regard to the people portrayed.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

2.12 The analytical process

The concept of the analytical process is that of one Carrier and its possessive attributes. The Carrier is the whole and the attributes are the parts. Fashion shots, for example, present a woman or a man as the Carrier who carries the specific clothing for which they have been photographed (cf Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 88).

An analytical fashion shot:

(Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 89)

Photographs often do not fulfil the purpose of being analytical. As usual, they carry much information as they are naturalistic and rich in detail. By too many details, however, the viewer of a picture easily gets lost in one or the other way. Too much detail will often leave him or her in a mess because he or she does not know which detail is important and which is not. This irritates the reader and that‘s why strategies have to be found which reduce the parts of one Carrier to its essential features. In paintings or maps, which are generally preferred when it comes to analytical processes, the essential information can easily be made salient for the viewer. In maps, for example, colour is restricted to a reduced palette, background is left out, or only sketched in lightly. And the possessive attributes are labelled. Yet photographs can also be used in analytical processes.

These photographs are made more analytical by reducing life-likeness, by reducing detail. The background of a photograph, for example, can be plain or very much out of focus. It can be black and white and/or grainy. Or, it can be the other way round: The photograph can be so gratuitious in detail, that the viewer does not see the possessive attributes, but is attracted by the sensual, desirable quality of the Carrier. In such a picture, the strategy of presenting a product in an analytical process is different. Now the Carrier is of overwhelming detail because its not the parts of it which are important but its overall persuasive impression (cf Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 90).

This example of an ad is analytical because it shows car and text surrounded by white colour alone. Nothing distracts from the essential elements in this ad.

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2.13 Modality

2.13.1 Situational Modality

Myers (1994: 146) says that pictures also „carry modality, a suggestion of how much we are to take them as representations of reality.“ This modality is similar to the concept of perspective in which the viewer is put into an imaginary position in his relation to the picture. Modality gives the viewer a feeling what kind of situation he is in when looking at a picture or painting. Myers (1994: 146) claims that an „outline drawing does not present itself as directly related to the thing and the moment, while a grainy black and white photograph does.“ And, when giving the example of the Kenwood Ad, he says about this photo that it “ suggests with its background and detail that it is a moment snatched objectively. The choice of black and white carries further associations of immediacy, because we associate it with news photos.

(Myers 1994: 138)

The next copy of an ad shows a young woman who is sitting on a bed in a hotel. In this place she appears relaxed and dreamy regarding her facial expression and the way she is posing on the bed. This atmosphere which is conveyed here on the picture, her feeling of wellness carries situational modality.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

2.13.2 Modality of time

A picture, no matter if it has been designed for a certain purpose or not, always carries information concerning place and time. The place where the picture was taken may, for example, give us clues to which social surroundings it has to be attributed to. „All pictures give us a point of view, the way pronouns do in language“, Myers (1994: 146) says „There is a point of view in time as well as in space. Pictures suggest what happens before or after; [...]“. The ad which serves as an example for the transactional process carries modality of time regarding the situation which is depicted. The point of view in time is just the time when the soccer is taking place.

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