Intentional Signifiers and Signified language in my Images

The Task:
To produce at least three images depicting different messages by using different techniques, views or situations. An object, person or scene may used to accomplish this but there must be distinct signifiers and signified messages in each image.
For this task, I have used one of my fellow students as a model and photographed him in different poses and environments.

Image 1

The signifier in image 1 and 2 is a young man in what appears to me to be a compromised situation. The fallen tree trunk in image 1 strikes me as uncomfortable and I find myself not wanting him to venture out any further despite him being quite at home. Image 2 sees a serious facial expression and again I am concerned for safety reasons even though my model is more than confident in his venture. His hand near his face in image 1 implies thinking and that is actually true, had the surface not been so slippy, he would have carried on walking further out. I intended to show a young carefree person in my images and hope this is what I achieved rather than showing my unease with the situation.

Image 2

My judgement is no doubt coloured by my dislike of heights and perhaps because I am a mum and have natural protective instincts. A younger person viewing these images may well look at them and consider the activity 'fun' or perhaps wonder if he is protesting against something whilst perched on the tree trunk. I know that the descent from the container in image 2 happened quite safely but it does look like Rob is considering the distance to the ground and his crouched position further enforces this belief.

Image 3

In image 3 we see a very different view of the same person which, shows us him checking a photograph on the camera playback. His hand gripping the wire door may look as though he is unsteady, the truth is that his hand was the subject of his photography and he simply hadn't removed it.

Image 4

Image 4 has been taken at a slightly upwards angle to add a feeling of importance to the person in the image. We see here a student looking like he is interested in the computer screen. In reality, this is the log on screen and my model is just pretending to do some work at this point.







Conclusion
I found this exercise interesting and fun to carry out. I had to really think about the signified message I would be giving out in my images and whether it would be understood by viewers. Simply taking a photograph of any subject isn't that difficult but it takes a lot more skill and consideration to purposely deliver an understandable message. The messages we read into an image will always be clouded or influenced by our own experiences of life and social upbringing, something else to consider when trying to project a message through your photography. In my images above, the aim was to portray my fellow student in many different lights and hopefully influence the viewers opinion of him. I believe that I achieved my aim to a certain extent, however because of his clothes, he does retain a young and carefree look in all the images and to substantially change perception, a change of style would most likely be required.