Ever Changing Reality

Barthes’ concept that a picture represents the literal reality does not strongly allocate the idea that reality is in the eye of the beholder. One reader’s view of reality may not be the reality of another person.

The denotative meaning of a picture is viewed as the explicit literal meaning. However, the reader of the picture will go further to create a connotative meaning based on what the individuals interpret the image based on their own thoughts. The reader of the message within an image has already been rooted with the ideologies that they have gained from an early age. The connotation which they use to decode the message have already been predisposed with in their physical, historical, social, cultural background and the values which they acquired.
Though people may not think that there is a code within an image and that an image represents a prefect and accurate view of reality, they will formulate and convey an idea of the message from their predisposed point of view. The press provides a text to an image to the reader the idea has already been given therefore defining the connotative meaning to the reader.

This I believe could be misleading to the reader who may be unfamiliar with an issue or discouraged to formulate his own denoted meaning.In my selected picture I chose to discuss a topic that is controversial in order to establish my idea that reality illustrated by an images is read through a person’s own view of reality.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has last thousands of years and the views and feelings about the issue have been rooted in the minds and souls of its involved population. The Israeli’s believe that they have returned to their promised land and gained the territories as was promised to them by the British and the 1947 UN partition to create the Jewish homeland. The Palestinians on the other hand believe that the land is theirs and that the Jews are occupying it.
In this image you can see an Israeli police car with Israeli soldiers by it. You also see a group of Palestinians throwing rocks at the Israeli police.

Without text to provide meaning to the image, there could be various views of realities that could be drawn from this picture. On one side, one can argue that the reality being shown in this image is that the Israeli army is creating turmoil and imposing forceful handling on the Palestinian residence.

Another view may be that the Israeli army is trying to rectify the situation, calm down the violent protesters and protect the threatened citizens of Israel from any outburst of terrorism.
Another view could be that the Palestinians are fighting the occupation of the Israelis and are protesting by throwing rocks and terrorizing soldiers. The fact that the Palestinians are wearing ski masks and covering their faces may indicate that they are doing something iniquitous and they do not want to be identified.

The picture is taken from the Israeli point of view, which also could show the situation from a different angle than what was going on at the moment when it was taken.
Thus, any person who sees a picture naturally and inevitably creates a code to convey the message. One applies his own interpretation according to his own view of reality. Reality is never a set idea; reality is constantly changing and never perfect.

GK