Connotations:
Both of these images are of young women in thier mid to late 20s.
Thier faces are shown in grayscale, and elements of the photos are
shown in highly saturated, unrealistic color. both womens eyes are
depicted in color, as well as thier nails and atire. The woman in the
top image has painted lips, the lower does not. in both images, their
air has been cut out and replaced with crossword puzzles. there is
nothing written in either puzzle. both images have a paragraph in
Italian in the lower left corner.
the lower women has a look on her face that appears to be in deep
thought, as if she is pondering something. she is resting her head
against her hands. she is wearing a bracelet and a orange flower
around her wrists. She is wearing a silk robe that, along with the
outline of her hairstyle, appears early 60s vintage. the background
sceen is a soft and nondescript pink texture.
the top woman is touching her face, her eyes are winched as if she
is in distress, and a blue stylized tear has been added below her left
eye. she is wearing a wool suite jacket and gold necklaces, both of
which have been colored appropriately (but highly oversaturated).
again, her atire and hairstyle appear vintage, possibly slightly older
than the first. she is presented over a bright green and yellow cutout,
the yellow patch behind her is a sharply drawn C or V shape.
Denotations:
With both images, the dominant and most imediate thing your eyes
are drawn to, is the insertation of the crossword puzzle grids. to me,
this signifies a lack of answers in life. the top woman is distressed, and
has that look of "what to do?" on her face. while things like her clothing,
nails, and painted lips are bright and vibrant, she lacks color, which could
be read as a number of things. it could be a lack of personal depth, and
that she is defined only by the material possessions which she is dressed
in, or possibly that she feels lifeless in a world that is so bright and well
defined. the fact that grayscale is nondescript implies that while the things
on the surface are easy to see and understand, she is not. we see her
appearance, but not who she REALLY is. the crossword puzzle, located in a
way that relates to her inner thoughts, is empty, and there are no clues
present for what the answers could be. this, to me signifies the incredibly
difficult and daunting task of defining who one is. We are presented
with a void that we instinctively feel should be filled in, yet she has
no way to understand or come up with the answers.
the lower woman, by constrast, is presented in a very similar way,
but her face lacks the desperation seen in the first. instead, her eyes
are staring off into the distance, pondering. the color palet of the scene
is much softer, and to me, this implies contentness. How I see these
two images, are the representation of two very different types of people
in life. the top womans atire is that of someone who is working, for
someone. she is professional, and she is tightly put together. the lower
woman by contrast, is dressed in loose robes that are comfortable, soft,
and nondescript. While the top woman is painted with red lipstick and
nails (no doubt implying the sexual associations of the color, and her
position as attractive woman working for a man; the era of the
clothing/dress reassures us this is her position), the lower woman is still
made up, but in a manner that is much less prescribed. her nails are yellow,
and match her flower on her wrist. her lips are left gray. She is in tune with
the [natural] world around her. Unlike the top woman, who is terrified at
the thought of self discovery, she seems to embrace it, not as a daunting
obsticle, but as one of the great treats of life. while she still has no answers,
she is content with that. While the top woman sees the puzzles of life as an
impossible task, this woman understands that if she lives as SHE desires,
and not for someone else, those answers will slowly fill themselves in, and,
since there are no instructions, can be filled in however she sees fit. While
the lack of direction terrifies the first, it intrigues and engages the second.
There are people in life that do not live for themselves. they do what others
tell them to do, and their reference of success is based upon how well they
satisfy the ones that direct them. when that direction is lost, so are they.
then, there are those at the other end of the spectrum. they recognize that
this is THEIR life, and no one elses. they live as they see fit, not as they are
told to. happiness is dependent on how closily they can bring the physical
world to the world within their head.
These two images show that contrast between people, and while both types
of people play vital roles in the world, its the individual who realizes that life
is theirs, that is happy in the end, not the ones that blindly do as they are told.
