Importance of Visual Literacy in Photography Education

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What is Visual Literacy and Why is it important in Photography Education?
The incorporation of visual literacy teaching in curriculums shows that the education sector has started realizing the potential it has in shaping the competence of students Since images play a huge role in the social life of students it has seen a dramatic increase in educational resources as they are now geared to ensure students acquire visual literacy. In particular photography, education requires this skill therefore, children are starting to get introduced to visual literacy at an early age. In the study by Friedman, A Friedman, A, he exposes three-year-olds to educational mediation and the results show that such mediation by preschool teachers and parents play a huge role in developing their visual literacy. This is to equip them with the knowledge to analyze and deduct information from messages. For a long time, written and oral literacy has always taken precedence in teaching but with technology, visual literacy is starting to get recognized as a way of learning, if not the most efficient. Since visual literacy is important in information transmission, it makes sense that teachers want to utilize visual learning for the students to acquire knowledge. This essay is geared to show why visual literacy is needed and how we can cultivate it, especially in photography education. To achieve this, three research questions: what is visual literacy? what is the practical significance of visual literacy in photography education? and how to develop visual literacy in photography teaching discusses why visual literacy may as well change the education sector.
What is visual literacy
The surface meaning of visual literacy is self-explanatory. The meaning of visual in this context is an image or illustration. Literacy, on the other hand, is the ability to read and write. Therefore, visual literacy can be defined as an individual’s ability to visualize analyze and interpret and image to deduct the meaning of any information the image might be relaying. Visual literacy is based on the belief that information can be passed on through images and they can be read. CITATION Fra72 \l 1033 (Fransecky) Images showcase concepts that can be used to refer to a person or an object therefore, each individual interprets images through their perspective. These perspectives are influenced by beliefs and cultures that the individual associates with the person or object being represented by the image. Photography is an art and the images inform, reflect and communicate information about what is being captured. Technology has enabled us to effectively express our artistic interpretations of cultures, religion, beliefs, and vision of our surrounding environments. Therefore, visual literacy is influential in someone’s ability to recognize the intended message in a photographic image just the same way you can interpret something through reading a text.
Understanding an image, it requires observing the roles being played by the components of the image. Components of visual literacy such as body, object, abstract, sign and symbol languages provide guidelines on how one should approach studying an image. The meaning of a photographic image of a person can be deciphered by observing the body language such as facial expressions and gestures of the individual. The nonverbal communication skills express emotions that we as a view of the image can associate and relate to normal human behavior. Visual literacy enables you to pay attention to the role an object plays in the image. This is the object language where the analysis is derived by observing the object and its relationship with other objects or an individual. CITATION Oks17 \l 1033 (Duchak) Abstract language involves analyzing an image from an indirect perspective. Professional photographers have mastered the skill of storytelling with their images. This allows them to be creative and utilize their scenes to communicate abstract human messages just in a different manner. The understanding of the abstract language of visual literacy enables you to make sense of abstract symbolism and messages such as love, hate, peace, morals, success or failure, and intentions by observing an image. Signs and symbols language enable one to pay attention to any symbols that can be representative of a culture, belief or religion and how it interacts with the theme of the image.
The idea of using mages has a long history even before John Debes first coined the term visual literacy in 1969. The ability to read and study symbols and images date back to the prehistoric period. Prehistoric art such as the Paleolithic cave paintings of Altamira and Lascaux are scattered all over Europe and they showcase the use of images in this period. The common motifs that they used were buffalos, reindeer and horses that they used to represent the prosperity and fertility of their tribe. This shows that the history of visual communication dates back 30,000 years ago back to the cave paintings and it has been studied and utilized ever since. Ancient philosophers understood the immense impact visual representations can have on learning and they found ways to incorporate it. For instance, in mathematics, the Pythagoras consisted of visual images that made it easy to study geometry and Aristotle’s’ used images in his representation of atoms. It is very difficult to explain an idea that is primarily nonverbal but its influence is being experienced in every field. That is why interested researchers have each come up with their unique definition of visual literacy. However, they all lean on the idea that humans can develop visual competences that enables them to view images, involve other sensory areas and come up with a perception of the image. CITATION Mic17 \l 1033 (Michelson)
Psychological perspectives try to explain human behavior and the role of sensory organs in decision making. Behavioral perspective assumes that an individual’s behavior is controlled by their environment through stimuli. This influences the learning where one can learn by association, classical conditioning or trough consequences of behavior, operant conditioning. This association of behavior to an environment is what makes one to instantly associate a person to a culture or behavior, judging from their behavior. This is one perspective that influences visual literacy and will consequently the analysis of photographic images. Another psychological perspective that plays a huge role in visual literacy is cognitive psychology. Institutionalized by Wilhelm Wundt as a science in 1987, it has enabled scientists to study human memory and sensor perceptions with relation to the human brain. The studies involve observing cognitive processes to help in understanding the processes of acquiring knowledge. Mental processes such as memory, perception, attention get called into action during the visual analysis of an object and influenced the decision making. This is the same way that human memory will influence how you view and perceive the message being communicated by an image.
This shows exactly why it is important to incorporate the learning of visual literacies in education with the same emphasis as linguistic literacy. This is because education stakeholders are realizing that visual literacy is not only limited to technology and modern mass media. In an artistic field such as photography, the importance of visual literacy cannot be underestimated. Such education allows learners to be creative in expressing what they are thinking or believe in by associating it with whatever they see. The visual representation offers another perspective to life and also tells the image viewers more about the photographer. The knowledge of visual literacy is what a photographer utilizes to create their style and themes that they are associated with. For instance, Gregory Crewdson utilizes the knowledge to influence how he sets up his scenes. His work is very detailed and the large scenes provide more information that the viewer can use to try and understand what is going on in his images.
What is the practical significance of visual literacy in photography education?
The world that we live in today is full of pictures. The photography scene is littered with talented and expressive minds and they are pushing the limits on what can be done in photography. However, we don’t have the necessary tools to appreciate their work fully. CITATION Fel08 \l 1033 (Felten) This is why visual literacy needs to be taught not only in photography education but across all departments. Photography learning is complex and utilizing visuals aids the learner to be more responsive. However, visual learning alone is not sufficient and it can be a distraction and confusing. Many photography beginners start learning photography through visual methods which makes everything more complicated. This is because they are trying to replicate the images they see from experienced photographers without knowing how to achieve such an image. The lack of visual literacy and incompetence can be seen in their images. This is because they are capturing images without the knowledge of what a good image should contain and what message they are trying to convey. At this point, they are using the try and error learning method that will slow down their learning process. If photography beginners can be exposed and taught visual literacy, their learning ability is enhanced and also the time required to learn the skill is reduced. The learners build connections between text and illustrations and the knowledge is held in the memory. Visual literacy and technicality go hand in hand and immensely improve how a photographer approaches an image or scene. The student will begin to understand the decisions that an experienced photographer made when they captured their image and use the techniques to better their photography.
We have established the importance of visual communication and how powerful it can be in influencing our emotions. This is achieved by a thought out context and factor that gets to differentiate the different emotions and ensure that the image viewer gets the intended message. Such a skill is learned by having visual literacy and understanding how to leverage the components of an image to relate to people’s emotions. A visually literate photographer can read communication visuals, plan their visuals for communication, execute their plans for intentional communication and understand how verbal communication can be replaced by visu...