photo.graph.art.design

 Violence bleeds with the stories of the violent and the violated. This observation cuts to the heart of one of the most profound and uncomfortable truths about violence: the complete narrative of violence must encompass both the hand that strikes and the face that receives the blow, both the system that crushes and the body crushed beneath it. To tell only half the story—to focus exclusively on victims' suffering or perpetrators' actions—is to miss the terrible human complexity that makes violence possible, sustainable, and repeatable across history. Guernica , a massive black-and-white antiwar painting by Pablo Picasso , depicting a scene of chaos, suffering, and the brutal realities of war, with figures of a bull, a screaming horse, a fallen soldier, and grieving women, makes us see both the violator and the violated in war. In 1937, the Spanish town of Guernica was destroyed by Nazi bombers supporting Francisco Franco 's fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War . Th...

 The history of visual analysis represents humanity's evolving relationship with images—from cave paintings to digital screens, from religious icons to internet memes. This intellectual journey traces how we have moved from simple description to complex theoretical frameworks that reveal the hidden structures, ideologies, and meanings embedded in visual culture. While visual analysis has ancient roots, its most transformative developments have occurred in the modern and contemporary periods, fundamentally reshaping how we understand the power and politics of the image. Early Foundations The early history of visual analysis established essential methodologies that would later be challenged and expanded. Pliny the Elder 's first-century documentation of artists and techniques in his Natural History represented an empirical approach—cataloging rather than interpreting. This descriptive tradition continued through Giorgio Vasari 's biographical narratives in The Lives of the A...

 Visual culture encompasses the totality of images, visuals, and visual practices that shape our lived experience. It manifests through art, photography, cinema, design, and countless other forms, representing the ideas, customs, and social behaviours that revolve around visual materials. Visual culture is not merely decorative or informational; it is a powerful force that produces, circulates, and interprets visual forms to construct meanings, shape beliefs, and convey power within specific cultural contexts. From traditional artworks such as paintings and sculptures to mass media like film, television, and advertising, from digital platforms including websites, apps, and video games to everyday objects like fashion, logos, and packaging—all these elements communicate meaning and fundamentally shape our understanding of the world. The quality and impact of visual culture depend on two critical factors: the quality of the visual content created and the nature of the act of see...

 A study by Way Walker conducted across painters, poets, musicians, and filmmakers—spanning many outstanding artistic creations and pursuits, domains, genres, and movements—reveal five key discoveries. 1. Don't Go Wide but Go Deep Don't try hard to create something that everyone will like, though that sounds reasonable. The greatest creators did not go wide; they went deeper. They created art for one person, one group, or a younger or future emotional avatar of themselves. It is made for one feeling, one version of self that needed the message the most. The goal of art need not be to make something universal or make something big. Van Gogh did not paint for the world; he painted for his brother. Maya Angelou wrote poetry to address her wounded self. This is the paradox: the more personal it is, the more universal it becomes. You start trying to impress everyone, you end up impressing no one. Go out and touch one person deeply, and you will end up moving thousands. Once you k...

 Sometimes the most powerful revolutions begin with the smallest steps. In 1960, a six-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges took such steps—walking through a screaming mob to attend her first day of school. Her courage was so profound that it moved a nation and inspired one of America's greatest artists to capture her story in a painting that would hang in the White House decades later. Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954—the same year the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional. Yet six years later, when a federal judge ordered New Orleans schools to integrate, Ruby found herself walking alone into history. She was one of only six Black children who passed the tests to attend the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School. While other families chose different paths, Ruby's mother made a decision that would echo through generations: "This is important—not just for Ruby, but for all the children who will come after her." On November ...

  Watch how people of varied genders think, walk, speak, and conduct themselves in a family or society, and you will unmistakably know which gender enjoys the freedom to earn, save, and spend. Agency is considered as a core component of the broader concept of empowerment, whether for women, men, or others of the spectrum; be it children, elderly, and other vulnerable adults. It is their ability to define and act on goals, make decisions that matter to them, realise their aspirations, and participate in the economy and public life. Albert Bandura, renowned social learning theorist and psychologist, clarifies that “to be an agent is to intention- ally make things happen by one’s actions.” Often, in our societies, the male adult assumes agency and act captaincy, not even taking time to think of other alternatives. On a lighter note, this anecdote perhaps be in place. Barack Obama, as the president of the United States, was touring the far off states with his family. They were hungry; ...

  We must not miss this point, as material success stories
of corporations, multinationals, political parties, religious establishments, societies, and families upsurge, numbers of people with mental illnesses too will explode. The theme for this year’s Mental Health Day (October 10) is “prioritising mental health in the workplace”. Give success to the work
of our hands is an ancient prayer of a Hebrew Psalmist. Nearly 3,500 years have passed, we have seen empires rise and fall; civilisations appear and disappear; social, scientific, and technological revolutions have ripped through the world; still this meta human wish hasn’t changed. Every person getting a chance to stroke the magic lamp wishes for the mysterious, enchanted endpoint called success, which in fact is an ever-growing ladder. Despondently, often the measure of success, especially in capitalist economies, is limited to one’s material accumulations. Off the topic, John Henry Jowett, a hundred years ago, had opined that...

  Media representation stands as a fundamental concept in understanding how our perceptions of reality are shaped and disseminated by media images. It refers to the intricate process through which media images construct a particular version of reality through deliberate selection and anchorage . And audience through repeated watching of these media images take them as the reference and representation of reality. At its core, media representation is not a neutral act of mirroring reality but an active process of construction. Every image, narrative, or soundbite presented by the media undergoes a process of selection —deciding what to include and what to omit—and anchorage —the way in which meanings are fixed or guided through accompanying text, voiceovers, or contextual framing. This selective and anchoring process is rarely devoid of underlying perspectives. Instead, it is often influenced by specific angles, prejudices, agendas, or ideologies, whether overtly stated or subtly e...

  Visual culture is a multifaceted field that examines the pervasive role of visuals in shaping human understanding, beliefs, and behaviours. It posits that visuals are not merely reflections of reality but rather " constructed realities " that actively influence our perception of the world. At its heart, visual culture positions visuals as the reference and data for knowledge, beliefs, thinking, creations, behaviour, etc.; which in turn further shapes current beliefs, thinking, creations, behaviour, etc. Visuals are images/collection of images that are made to be seen. Framed (made) and put out. This highlights that visuals are not spontaneous occurrences but deliberate constructions, detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance, says, John Berger . Examples like the contrasting Newsweek and TIME magazine covers of O.J. Simpson illustrate how different framings of the same event can convey distinct messages and narratives, underscoring the idea ...