Issue: "Neutrality" or Ideology?

Roland Barthes illustrates the ideological content of photographic images through a key distinction, differentiating between what he labels the "denoted" image and its counterpart, the "connoted" image. The former refers to an iconic representation of an object, a one to one correspondence, while the latter evokes the cultural associations implicit to an object. According to Barthes, photographs typically conflate the two--e.g., an advertisement featuring a tomato (freshness, health)--convincing the viewer to perceive the object in a particular way.

Further, he adds, captions ensure that the message gets through, alerting the viewer to "the correct level of interpretation" (275). Bringing together these three levels of meaning, Barthes states that the apparent "absence of a code reinforces the myth of photographic 'naturalness' " (278), making images extremely effective as agents of persuasion. In Barthes's view, the image always reflects an interest, and it is the viewer's task to read the pictorial content carefully.

Contemporary photographers have turned this negative into a positive by injecting a personal viewpoint into their work, asking the viewer to confront a conventional scene from a new perspective.