Semiotic Analysis...

This image is a Benetton campaign from 1991.

The denotation here is the priest and the nun, and the connotation on a basic level is religion. The sign is the couple kissing, and the signified is love and affection. The signifiers that build this are the black and white of the religious habits, as black and white are considered opposites this could signify opposites in terms of religion, or more simply male being the opposite of female.

The textual codes link into the social codes in this as the diagonal lines of the priest’s hat and the hood of the nun create a triangle which creates the point of focus of the image, the priest and nun kissing. The warm tones of their skin guarantee this focus against the bright white and the black. In this triangle that has been created, the body language shows tenderness and love and almost creates an image of purity, from the smoothness of colours and the curved flowing lines and how young the couple appear to be, but when the social context is considered, this is not pure, in actual fact it is far from it.
The image itself brought about a very controversial response due to the taboo the photo explores. Relationships between clergy is forbidden, yet what is shown from the image is not something that is rude and blasphemous, although to religious types it may seem this but the body language shows love and affection. The view this image appears to create of the world is the opposite of life, due to this prohibition of relationships between ecclesiastics, so it takes quite a fantasy approach.



The denotation here is image of 2 slugs sat at in a kitchen at a table with salt, and the connotation could be illness or death, as that is what happens when you put salt on slugs. The whole image is very innovative and clever, as it is a metaphor for drug taking, particularly cocaine. Another metaphor for the usage of slugs could relate to the general characteristics of somebody under the influence of cocaine one of which is obnoxious, which a lot of people may think about slugs due to their slimy appearance.

The composition of the image works, as the focus is the kitchen table which the slugs are sat at with their pile of ‘salt’. In the bottom right hand corner is a line of text, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ and clearly the text is referring to death. It is interesting that the text is written in single white lines, which could be representative to a line of cocaine. The type is a small sans-serif font, something similar to Impact, so it is bold enough to be seen while not being a large size which would disrupt the composition. The size of the text shows the message is an afterthought, something for the audience to think about and consider.As for the social codes the style of clothing suggests the slugs are young adults, possibly 18-30 and the use of their heads been replaced by slugs heads really works, as if they were just human heads it would not have the same effect, as the visualisation and association that should be made by the audience is how quickly slugs shrivel up and die when salt is applied to them.