Understanding Visual Communication

Throughout the course, one artistic piece stood out for me: the Miss Mina Tabor picture
titled ‘Feminine vanity still demands attention’ that was taken around the World War 2 era. The
image’s background is laden in black color, perhaps to bring more detail to the woman in the
picture. The use of reflection is evident as the woman takes a peek to augment her facial
appearance on an aluminum sheet. The casualness of the black and white picture leverages
society’s perception of vanity, as elaborated in aspects such as feminine beauty (Glezos, 2020).
On the other hand, the strategic timing of the picture suggests an appeal to the society to be much
more receptive of women involvement in dynamic social-cultural activities. Furthermore, it
serves to empower the woman to take up vocational and societal-based challenges in a male-
domineered society.
My favorite work from the class material is that of image interpretation. Ideally, I learnt
that understanding visual communication is dependent on the cultures that we are bred in. On the
other hand, various depictions of art shape the reality in which we live in and view the world.
More specifically; the essence of art censorship intrigued my thinking rationale. The aspect of
visual art censorship is a method incorporated by artists to leave out key details in a piece of art
(Garcia, 2018). Alternatively, the ruling class in any society may be responsible for art
censorship. The censorship of art is largely dependent on the moralistic and philosophical code
of ethics in that particular society. Notably, these aspects form the foundation for democratic
interrelatedness, thereby forming part of an integral culture’s practices (Bulakh, 2019). In a bid
to maintain social-cultural and political cohesiveness in a particular society, censorship must be
accentuated. The manner in which society decodes art is vital in the overall understanding on the
piece of art.

3

A peek back into the semester materials mainly remind me of the renaissance era. Ideally,
this was a period in the European and Western cultures when there was an explosion in art,
literature, and musical tenets. The proliferation of artistic dissidents particularly in Harlem led to
the creation of new styles in fashion, art, and music. Ideally, classical Jazz music stemmed from
the renaissance era (Taylor, 2020). It is worth noting that various forms of visual art were
developed during this period. Ideally, the explosion in art, music and fashion was partly
influenced by Black culture uprising. The imagery in the art used is a depiction of cultural tenets
within the community at the current time. I was intrigued by the diversity of imagination
incorporated to voice oppressions culture and evolution in an era where censorship was a foreign
ideology (Taylor, 2020). Thus, the free expressionist ideals were pivotal to the development of
black and feminist empowerment ideology.
Essentially, I consider myself to be more confident in the performance of visual analysis
tasks currently. Throughout the course dynamics of image interpretation, I learned that various
elements determine the outcome of art including background settings, texture, colorization, and
alignment (Garcia, 2018). Personally, I am more interested in the aspects of texture and
alignment. I am inclined to the rationale that these form the basis of every artistic interpretation.
Texture offers the mood for image, while alignment presents the visual-imaginative outlook.
Ideally, my outlook towards visual art is mainly inclined towards soliciting a conspiracy,
or a deeper message leveraged by the piece of art. Essentially, society has been the largest
contributor to my outlook and interest in artistic fragments. Street murals for instance leverage
an avenue for everyday art visualization and interpretation of core social cultural attributes

4
(Garcia, 2018). Personally, I am able to contextualize visual elements with the help of color,
alignment, and texture analysis options in the artistic realm. On the other hand, I feel that I have
garnered more confidence in terms of conversing about visual culture. Ideally, after acquiring
visual art defining skills, I can interrogate my perception, and offer a rational analysis and
meaning for virtually any piece of visual art. On the other hand, my writing has improved as a
result of the exposure to writing tenets.
In conclusion, the Miss Mina Tabor picture titled ‘Feminine vanity still demands
attention’ that was taken around the World War 2 era intrigued my attention the most. Notably, it
serves to empower the woman to take up vocational and societal-based challenges in a male-
domineered society. Various depictions of art shape the reality in which we live in and view the
world. More specifically; the essence of art censorship intrigued my thinking rationale. A peek
back into the semester learnings mainly remind me of the renaissance era. Ideally, this was a
period in the European and Western cultures when there was an explosion in art, literature, and
musical adherents. I consider myself more confident in the performance of visual analysis tasks,
writing, and artistic interpretation.

5

References
Bulakh, І. V. (2019). Artistic and Aesthetic Formation and Evolution of Architectural and Urban
Planning Space. Наука та інновації.
Garcia, N., & Vogiatzis, G. (2018). How to read paintings: semantic art understanding with
multi-modal retrieval. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer Vision
(ECCV) Workshops (pp. 0-0).
Glezos, S. (2020). Speed and Micropolitics: Bodies, Minds, and Perceptions in an Accelerating
World. Routledge.
Taylor, J. (2020). A Cultural History of Black Musicians in Renaissance Europe, 1500-1700.