Image Analysis Exercise

 

The two pieces I am to critically analyse are: “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” which was a propaganda poster aimed at young British men during WWI by Savile Lumley in 1915, and “The Uncle Sam Range” by Schumacher & Etlinger, an advert for an American range from 1876.

The first obvious common ground is that both images want something from the viewer. They use different methods to reach this goal though; for example the earlier American image basically shows you a metaphor, it capitalises on how the Range is all American and proud, and is even ignorant towards other countries and their cuisine. You have to analyse this piece much more than the other before it makes sense, it has a much deeper level of meaning. The later English poster uses an entirely different much more direct method, it uses emotional blackmail to entice the viewer.

With these two pieces both being illustrations, it seems to me that the obvious thing to do is to analyse and compare the styles. One thing that jumps out at me is the higher levels of sophistication in the propaganda poster; the styles reflect the time periods the two images are from. Personally, I prefer Lumley’s poster in terms of aesthetics, but that’s just my taste in illustration, I generally prefer work post 1900’s rather than before. The line quality is greater, and the colour palette appeals to me much more.

I’m now going to talk in more detail about the technique used to engage the viewer in the propaganda poster. As a group we discussed these images and debated theories based around them, and one thing that came up was that a few people believed the fathers expression was that of disappointment, implying he regrets not fighting for his country, and is upset about not being a hero in his children’s eyes. I disagree however; I believe the expression on the fathers face is left completely neutral, to solely put emphasis on him looking at the viewer. I think Lumley’s intention was to make the father question the viewer, and ultimately make the viewer question themselves, and to encourage them that the choice is theirs, but that they will be looked down upon by society if the decide not to.  Like I mentioned earlier it’s brilliant use of emotional blackmail, it pressures you into doing what society believes it the right thing.

The Range advertisement image is different in the means that it’s much more private in what it reveals, you have to scan the image to realise there are metaphors hidden. I interpret this piece as “The US having the world round to dinner” at first, but once you study it further you realise it’s actually mocking the rest of the world and poking fun at what they believe is cuisine that hasn’t evolved. It’s a snobbish advertisement designed to unite all Americans in the sense that they believe they are better than everyone else, this technique is likely to sell, I can imagine people believing that they’re buying their way into a more civilised lifestyle.