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Article Excerpt
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN IMAGE AND IDEOLOGY is one of the most analysed themes in visual sociology. Despite this fact, there exists a serious omission in our understanding of the visual processes used to create ideology. Most previous studies, following the lead of Goffman's (1979) pioneering analysis of gender advertisements, have focussed on the analysis of repeated tropes (e.g., feminine touch) present within a collection of individual images. More recently, building upon the work of Foucault, researchers have examined the ideological purposes of specific types of images (e.g., mug shots of criminals). Neither of these forms of analysis emphasizes the role of either juxtaposition or sequence in the construction of meaning, despite the fact that these are standard considerations in the layout of photographic articles and books. This article, through the analysis of the role of visual juxtaposition and sequencing in the British government publication The Colonies in Pictures, documents previously ignored processes of ideology construction.
The article is divided into three sections. The first section summarizes previous research on the connection between visual images and ideology. It aims: 1) to establish the theoretical legitimacy of the connection; and 2) to document the lack of previous attention to the role of juxtaposition and sequencing in ideology construction. The second section discusses various ways that juxtaposition and sequencing have been used to create meaning in photo essays and books of photographic art. The presumption is that if these techniques have been recognized as powerful tools for the construction of desired meanings within the artistic community, then similar processes can likely be used to construct ideological meaning. The third section turns to the empirical examination of a specific publication, The Colonies in Pictures, in order to document the role of juxtaposition and sequencing in the construction of ideology.
Studies of Ideology
For initial purposes, ideology is conceived as a set of values and beliefs specific to a particular society that are: 1) taken for granted as natural and inevitable aspects of everyday life; and 2) through which individuals live out their relations to social institutions and structures. This is a broad definition, intended to encompass a variety of more specific theoretical conceptualizations. Specifically, there exists a significant theoretical cleavage between Marxists (who talk about ideology or the related term hegemony) (1) and followers of Foucault (who prefer the term discourse). (2) For current purposes, however, two elements of commonality are more important. First, both groups build upon the concept of gaze and treat visual materials as directly relevant to the construction of knowledge that affects social institutions and processes. (3) Second, though differing significantly on the processes that bring this about, both groups treat individuals as tied to subject positions. (4)
One of the earliest, and most influential, sociological studies of visual representation is Goffman's (1979) classic, Gender Advertisements. Drawing upon a visual archive of over 500 magazine advertisements, Goffman documented, in exhaustive detail, the existence of a series of recurring visual tropes with clear implications for gender relations, particularly the stratification-related issues of relative power and status. (5) For current purposes, the study had three significant legacies. First, the study drew attention to the manner in which characteristics of visual representation (relative size, direction of gaze, etc.) tacitly constructed understandings of social relationships. Second, according to Goffman (1979: 25): "[A]lthough the pictures shown here cannot be taken as representative of gender behavior in real life ... as pictures they are not perceived as peculiar and unnatural." In other words, Goffman drew attention to the power of visual representations. (6) Confronted with a disparity between real world observations and "unreal" depictions in the media, viewers come to accept the media depictions as natural. (7) Third, the weight of visual evidence that Goffman provided--the over 500 illustrations--highlighted the mechanism underlying the creation of such taken-for-granted constructions, repetition.
Lutz and Collins (1993) used a broadly similar approach to understand the construction of a non-Western Other in National Geographic. Like Goffman, they examined a large body of photographs (one randomly selected image from each of the 594 articles featuring non-Western people published between 1950 and 1986). While the visual tropes identified by Lutz and Collins differ from those Goffman described, (8) like Goffman they treat those tropes as constructing ideologies about stratification. And, most crucially for the purposes of the present argument, Lutz and Collins see repetition as the mechanism underlying ideology formation. Finally, the notion that various types of photographic representation (e.g., photographs, magazine reproductions, museum exhibitions, etc.) construct ideologies about non-Westerners has become a standard theme in visual anthropology (see for example Edwards, 1992; Faris, 1996; Gordon, 1997; Landau and Kaspin, 2002).
In contrast to the emphasis on reading the connotations of specific images and the role of repetition that characterizes research in cultural studies and visual anthropology, Foucault and his followers have explored the concept of an institutional gaze and the resulting relationship between images and power. Specifically, Foucault aims to document historical changes in the structures of power-knowledge that characterize a society. He treats photography, which developed in the early 19th century, concurrently with the rise of the modern political state, as significant because it became an important element of both scientific research and the regulation of social behaviour by the modern state's bureaucratic institutions. For example, photographs were used within the legal system to designate evidence and criminality (e.g., Lombroso's photographs of purported criminal types, Bertillon's mug shots for the Paris police department); in medicine to document pathologies and define a visual difference between "normal" and "abnormal" (e.g., Dr. Hugh Diamond's photographs of mental patients). (9)
Specifically, Foucault (1979) focusses upon the ideas of surveillance and visual inspection made possible by the panopticon-like structure of modern society. Thus, for Foucault, it is the emergence of certain types of photographs--types that facilitate surveillance and inspection--that merit attention. A detailed discussion of Foucault's approach is beyond the scope of the current article. For present purposes it is sufficient to note: 1) that he treats photographs as intimately connected to structures of power-knowledge in the modern state; and 2) that his position is predicated upon an analysis of certain types of photographs and the functions they fulfill. Thus, Foucault and his followers, just like researchers in cultural studies and visual anthropology, have ignored the role of juxtaposition and sequencing in the creation of meaning.
While the above treatment of ideology was intentionally general, in order to establish the failure of previous research to address the role of juxtaposition and sequencing in ideology formation, the substantive analysis in the third section builds upon a more specific definition--Althusser's (1971) conceptualization of ideology as the necessary representational means used to experience and make sense of reality. More specifically, the analysis presumes interpellation, Althusser's notion of how ideological systems "hail" social subjects and tell them their place in the system. Through this process viewers recognize themselves and identify with the ideal subject offered by the image. The analysis is further animated by Derrida's notion that binary oppositions carry connotations of power, superiority and worth. (10) In particular, attention will be paid to the manner in which a distinction is drawn between an unmarked (hence, normal and dominant) category (British) and a second marked (subservient) category (non-British).
In particular, these categories will be used to explicate the reconstruction of British colonial ideology during the middle of the 20th century. Colonialism, the policy by which a developed nation extends its power over another (typically less developed) people or territory, involves several elements: the political and economic conquest of the less developed country by the more developed one; the exploitation of the people and resources of the less developed country for the benefit of the more developed one; the fundamental restructuring of the culture of the less developed country (frequently involving forced changes in language); and the existence of a set of ideological concepts that justify and legitimate these actions. In its classic guise, British colonial ideology used skin color as the basis for marking British from non-British.
The Colonies in Pictures, however, emerged during a period of decolonization when, for a variety of reasons, it was necessary to reconstruct the ideological marker separating British from non-British. In contrast to World War I, from which Britain emerged with its empire both materially and emotionally strengthened, World War II unleashed a variety of forces that challenged the colonial status quo. Among those forces were: 1) the emergence of nationalist movements in the colonies; 2) the spread of communism (and the connected charge that colonial rule was just another form of capitalist exploitation); 3) the enhanced status of the United States on the international stage; 4) the increased opposition to imperialism; and, perhaps most critically; 5) the economic crisis faced by Britain. In 1952, a Foreign Office memo on the "Problem of Nationalism" identified three possible solutions: occupy the colony, threaten to intervene or "create a class with a vested interest in co-operation." Faced with economic turmoil at home, the third (and least costly option) was the most attractive. In short, Britain aimed to reconstruct its empire in the face of these pressures by ceding political autonomy to the colonies while retaining economic control. (11) Political devolution was seen as consistent with previous practices (e.g., the Canadian experience) and with the moral justification of the Empire (that Britain ruled on behalf of the native population) articulated by 19th-century British idealist philosophers (Boyce, 1999: 108-30).
The Colonies in Pictures was a product of this period of decolonialization and must be read with this context in mind. Specifically, it aims to reconcile pre-existing colonial ideologies with the policy of political autonomy for the colonies through a discourse of modernization and development that reconstructs the ideological marker used to distinguish between British and non-British. Before analysing the specific...
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