Visual Literacy & The 3 C's (2024)

Hello, my name is Mary Dew and welcome to my Podcast. This podcast will be on the topic of Visual Literacy and Photography. Let’s get started, shall we?

So, what is visual literacy? If we simply break down and define the two words, “visual” means images, and “literacy” means the ability to read and write. Therefore, a formal definition from the dictionary on visual literacy would be

. Another definition for visual literacy with an artistic viewpoint is the ability to interpret, use, appreciate, and create images using both conventional and 21st century media in ways that advance thinking, decision making, communication and learning. There is sort of a paradox that exists in trying to define visual literacy. Kate Furlong’s quote might sum up this paradox best, “If pictures can express more than 1,000 words, or pictures can express what words alone cannot, and if that “something” is what visual literacy is about, then it may be difficult to define visual literacy in the usual verbal way.” (Taken from: Kate Furlong- Visual Literacy and the Arts (slideshare.net)).

So then that leads to the question, if I want to become more visually literate in my photographic process, then what sort of skills do I need to learn in order to become more proficient at our visual language? I believe you may already possess some of these skills and there are probably some you may need to develop more. These skills are creative observation and analytical skills, the ability to interpret meaning within images, develop an understanding of the use of composition elements as communication tools, how to analyze one’s own photographic work, and how to construct photographs to illicit psychological and emotional responses from your viewers. That may sound a bit complex, but this entire course, Intermediate Photography, is designed to help you continue to develop these skills through lectures, image critiques and your visual and written assignments.

The next question we want to explore is, why is being visually literate important in our image-making process? What this is actually asking is, why is it important to think about communication before making our photographs? Well, whenever we make a photograph, we have a desire to show others that we find our subject meaningful. There is a reason that we were attracted to our subject and decided to press the shutter at that moment. Therefore, it is important for you to think about WHY you took the picture and WHAT you are trying to say through that image. Most important, if you don’t know WHY you are taking a picture and WHAT you are trying to communicate, you will have know idea HOW you should take it. In other words, you won’t have any criteria for making decisions on how to successfully create the photograph. For example, how will you know what type of lighting would best be utilized for your subject or scene if you don’t know what type of mood or emotional reaction you are hoping your viewers will experience?

I have created what are called the “3 C’s” as a framework for myself and for my students for making successful photographs that are not only visually creative and impactful, but that also push us to communicate meaning in our images so that our viewers have an experience while viewing our photographs. Our “3 C’s” are “Content, Concept, and Composition”. As a part of the creative photographic process, I believe mentally assessing the close interaction of how we are expressing all “3 C’s” will lead us to making more successful photographs. Lets start with the first “C”. While I have discussed content in a previous lecture, lets review. “Content” is simply the subject matter found within the image. It is the people, places or things that we photograph. Very often before we go out and shoot, we establish our Content first. But, this is not always necessarily the case, and sometimes our content may shift as our creative process evolves during our shoot. The next “C” I want to discuss in our framework is “Concept”. Concept is the message you want to express about your subject matter, and the purpose for creating your images. This is sometimes very confusing for students to verbally communicate, but none-the-less very important. Often when my students start describing the concept, they are still really describing their content. To help differentiate the two, I will sometimes ask students, what type of photography are you going to be doing? Usually this comes fairly easy for most. The next question I ask them is, what is going to be your theme? Very often the second question’s response is, I don’t know. Then I encourage them to do some thinking and maybe even journaling about what ideas they would like to share about the place, subject or subjects they are shooting. As they engage in this more difficult process, eventually students are able to establish a more comfortable dialogue that helps them communicate their concept or idea they want to express in their photographs. Finally, the last “C” is “Composition”. Composition is the art of seeing, selecting, and arranging elements and subjects in an interesting and pleasing way, and in such a way that clear communication is achieved. Notice this definition refers back to the importance of establishing our content and our concept. Utilizing composition effectively is what this entire Intermediate Photography course is all about! In our objectives, we will be studying several rules on constructing our framing, for example perspective and balance, and we will be studying the many different compositional design elements, such as line, pattern, texture and color. Our goal is to not only find ways to construct our framing and design to make pleasing photographs, but also as communication tools to help express our meaning. In other words, when we utilize our composition and content effectively, that will help us convey our concept.

As an example to demonstrate the “3 C’s”, I may decide that my type of photography for a particular project is going to be street photography, which means my content will be making photographs of street scenes. Maybe even more specifically, I may decide I want to photograph Chicago street photography. This is still content. It is more specific or a more detailed description of my content, but it is still stating my subject matter. As I begin formulating my ideas, I might decide I want to photograph street scenes that show the very few times when the city is desolate and empty, and I might give this project a title called, “The Sterile City”. Now that is concept! It is a specific idea that helps give me criteria on not only what I am going to shoot, but how I am going to shoot it. In stark contrast to this idea, maybe I decide later on that I want to do a project on “The Urban Jungle” to show the chaos that can often exists on the busy city streets of Chicago. These are two completely opposite concepts that both involve the same type of content, street scenes. Though as you can visualize, we can take many different approaches to the types of photography we like to create.

So to review, by determining the “3 C’s”, this will help us not only establish WHO or WHERE, our content we are going to be photographing, but also the WHAT and WHY, our concept we are going to be communicating, as well as the HOW, our composition we are going to be utilizing. Practicing the “3 C’s” framework, I believe can help us become more visually literate in developing our abilities to communicate more effectively through our photographs and the bodies of work we create. When we integrate all of the “3 C’s” we allow our viewer’s to not just see our photographs, but to experience our photographs!

That about wraps up this podcast on the topic of “Visually Literacy and the Photographic Process”. For more information on Visual Literacy and Photography, please look at my website for a list of links. My name is Mary Dew, and thanks again for listening.

For more information on Visual Literacy and Photography visit:
https://guides.lib.unc.edu/visual-literacy
https://www.lehigh.edu/~sjo3/edt/visp/visual_literacy.htm
http://nuovo.com/southern-images/analyses.html