Reading Deeper Into an Image

Images surround us in our daily lives, whether they are in a book that we are reading, on a billboard that we pass on the interstate, on a website that we come across while surfing the Internet, or in a picture frame sitting on our desks. But how often do we really stop to think about the meaning that all of these images portray? Personally, before taking my English 150 class, I rarely stopped to “read” an image and find the meaning behind it. In order to be able to “read” a picture it is important to understand what exactly “reading” a picture is and what it entails. Professor Joel Morgovsky of Brookdale Community College explains it in his website dedicated to the art of reading pictures.

Images are presented to us in different contexts, so at times it can be difficult to figure out how to interpret them. The book Reading Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques by Jim Burke provides questions that aid in finding the meaning behind an image. Although art is not common in most of our daily lives, it is also a form of imagery. It conveys ideas just like other forms of imagery do and is open for interpretation.

Part of interpreting images has to do with the way that our brain processes what we see, as well. There is a scientific process that an image undergoes beginning from the moment we set our eyes on the image through all of the different parts of the brain that it stimulates. Neurophilosophy explores the details of this scientific process.

Being able to “read” images has a major impact on the development of a child’s reading skills. A how-to video on improving a child's reading skills that I found on the web informs us that the key to children fully understanding the text that they read is for them to be able to understand the pictures and make a connection between them and the text.

I have learned the basics of interpreting an image from my ENG 150 class. For example, the photo above poses a very strong statement. I interpret it as making a comparison between an error on the web and an error in our lives. To me it says that the explanation for the loss of a life is sometimes as simple as saying that a mistake occurred, just as easily as an error can occur on the web. That is my own personal interpretation, but someone else could interpret this image differently. Once one has learned how to go about interpreting images, one will find that there are infinite ways to interpret them and even though the creator of the image may have a certain interpretation in mind, there is no right or wrong interpretation. I think it is amazing to see how much more information one can get out of any ordinary image once one has learned and practiced the basic process.