RESEARCH: MARC RIBOUD PHOTOGRAPH (REPRESENTATIONS)

This photograph is an extremely powerful photograph has it has many different representations. In the Photograph we can see a young women holding a flower almost pleading for something. Due to the soldiers holding the bayonets the audience can only presume that the women is pleading for a non-violent and peaceful world, as symbolised through the colour (White) of the flower the women is holding. White flowers are ideal when you are looking to communicate that wonderful combination of elegance and innocence, therefore connoting the fact that the women wants a peaceful world. Not only is she holding a flower but she is covered in flowers due to the clothes that the women is wearing, this only emphasises the innocence she has and the peace that she wants in her life. Also there is a contrast in colours between the soldiers and the young women. The soldiers are dark and black whereas the women is in white. This connotes a sense of good vs evil into the image and also the fact that there is more than one soldiers makes the young women feel isolated and outnumbered which makes he position even more inferior to the soldiers.

Roland Barthes


Roland Barthes was a french semiotician. A semiotician is the study of signs and symbols. Barthes has given us an example of an advertisement to represent the idea of semiotics. The advertisement for Panzani shows the idea of semiotics as there
are many different connotations and denotations that can be seen in this image, such as the colours green, red and white which represent Italian food.