images theory essay

Picture Theory

Essays on verbal and visual representation.

W. J. T. Mitchell

462 pages | 79 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1994

Art: Art Criticism

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Examples of Visual Rhetoric: The Persuasive Use of Images

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

Zsolt Hlinka / Getty Images 

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• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Visual rhetoric is a branch of rhetorical studies concerned with the persuasive use of images, whether on their own or in the company of words .

Visual rhetoric is grounded in an expanded notion of rhetoric that involves "not only the study of literature and speech , but of culture, art, and even science" (Kenney and Scott in Persuasive Imagery , 2003).

Examples and Observations 

"[W]ords and how they're gathered on a page have a visual aspect of their own, but they may also interact with nondiscursive images such as drawings, paintings, photographs, or moving pictures. Most advertisements, for instance, use some combination of text and visuals to promote a product for service. . . . While visual rhetoric is not entirely new, the subject of visual rhetoric is becoming increasingly important, especially since we are constantly inundated with images and also since images can serve as rhetorical proofs ." (Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students . Pearson, 2004

"Not every visual object is visual rhetoric. What turns a visual object into a communicative artifact--a symbol that communicates and can be studied as rhetoric--is the presence of three characteristics. . . . The image must be symbolic, involve human intervention, and be presented to an audience for the purpose of communicating with that audience." (Kenneth Louis Smith, Handbook of Visual Communication . Routledge, 2005)

A Public Kiss

"[S]tudents of visual rhetoric may wish to consider how doing certain deeds expresses or conveys varied meanings from the perspectives of diverse participants or onlookers. For example, something as apparently simple as a public kiss can be a greeting between friends, an expression of affection or love, a featured symbolic act during a marriage ceremony, a taken-for-granted display of privileged status, or an act of public resistance and protest defying discrimination and social injustice. Our interpretation of the meaning of the kiss will depend on who performs the kiss; its ritual, institutional, or cultural circumstances; and the participants' and onlookers' perspectives." (Lester C. Olson, Cara A. Finnegan, and Diane S. Hope, Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture . Sage, 2008)

The Grocery Store

"[T]he grocery store--banal as it may be--is a crucial place for understanding everyday, visual rhetoric in a postmodern world." (Greg Dickinson, "Placing Visual Rhetoric." Defining Visual Rhetorics , ed. by Charles A. Hill and Marguerite H. Helmers. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004)

Visual Rhetoric in Politics

"It is easy to dismiss images in politics and public discourse as mere spectacle, opportunities for entertainment rather than engagement, because visual images transfix us so readily. The question of whether a presidential candidate wears an American flag pin (sending a visual message of patriotic devotion) can triumph over real discussion of issues in today's public sphere. Similarly, politicians are at least as likely to employ managed photo opportunities to create an impression as they are to speak from the bully pulpit with facts, figures, and rational arguments . In heightening the value of the verbal over the visual, sometimes we forget that not all verbal messages are rational, as politicians and advocates also speak strategically with code terms, buzz words , and glittering generalities." (Janis L. Edwards, "Visual Rhetoric." 21st Century Communication: A Reference Handbook , ed. by William F. Eadie. Sage, 2009)

"In 2007, conservative critics assailed then candidate Barack Obama for his decision not to wear an American flag pin. They sought to frame his choice as evidence of his presumed disloyalty and lack of patriotism. Even after Obama explained his position, the criticism persisted from those who lectured him on the importance of the flag as a symbol." (Yohuru Williams, "When Microaggressions Become Macro Confessions."  Huffington Post , June 29, 2015)

Visual Rhetoric in Advertising

"[A]dvertising constitutes a dominant genre of visual rhetoric . . . . Like verbal rhetoric, visual rhetoric depends on strategies of identification ; advertising's rhetoric is dominated by appeals to gender as the primary marker of consumer identity." (Diane Hope, "Gendered Environments," in Defining Visual Rhetorics , ed. by C. A. Hill and M. H. Helmers, 2004)

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How and When to Use Images in an Essay

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• 15th December 2018

Pages of text alone can look quite boring. And while you might think that ‘boring’ is normal for an essay, it doesn’t have to be. Using images and charts in an essay can make your document more visually interesting. It can even help you earn better grades if done right!

Here, then, is our guide on how to use images in an academic essay .

How to Use Images in an Essay

Usually, you will only need to add an image in academic writing if it serves a specific purpose (e.g. illustrating your argument). Even then, you need to make sure images are presently correctly. As such, try asking yourself the following questions whenever you add an image in an essay:

• Does it add anything useful? Any image or chart you include in your work should help you make your argument or explain a point more clearly. For instance, if you are analysing a film, you may need to include a still from a scene to illustrate a point you are making.
• Is the image clearly labelled? All images in your essay should come with clear captions (e.g. ‘Figure 1’ plus a title or description). Without these, your reader may not know how images relate to the surrounding text.
• Have you mentioned the image in the text? Make sure to directly reference the image in the text of your essay. If you have included an image to illustrate a point, for instance, you would include something along the lines of ‘An example of this can be seen in Figure 1’.

The key, then, is that images in an essay are not just decoration. Rather, they should fit with and add to the arguments you make in the text.

Citing Images and Illustrations

If you have created all the images and charts you want to use in your essay, then all you need to do is label them clearly (as described above). But if you want to use an image found somewhere else in your work, you will need to cite your source as well, just as you would when quoting someone.

The exact format for this will depend on the referencing system you’re using. However, with author–date referencing, it usually involves giving the source author’s name and a year of publication:

In the caption above, for example, we have cited the paper containing the image and the page it is on. We would then need to add the paper to the reference list at the end of the document:

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Gramblička, S., Kohar, R., & Stopka, M. (2017). Dynamic analysis of mechanical conveyor drive system. Procedia Engineering , 192, 259–264. DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2017.06.045

You can also cite an image directly if it not part of a larger publication or document. If we wanted to cite an image found online in APA referencing , for example, we would use the following format:

Surname, Initial(s). (Role). (Year).  Title or description of image  [Image format]. Retrieved from URL.

In practice, then, we could cite a photograph as follows:

Booth, S. (Photographer). (2014). Passengers [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevebooth/35470947736/in/pool-best100only/

Make sure to check your style guide for which referencing system to use.

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Department of Art History

Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation

W.J.T. Mitchell

From the publisher : 

What precisely, W. J. T. Mitchell asks, are pictures (and theories of pictures) doing now, in the late twentieth century, when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture? This book by one of America's leading theorists of visual representation offers a rich account of the interplay between the visible and the readable across culture, from literature to visual art to the mass media.

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Visual and Spatial Rhetoric: Analyzing Images

Most texts are more than words on a page. Photographs, works of art, graphic novels, political cartoons, computer or video game screens, television or magazine advertisements, webpages, billboards, and more are all texts composed and designed to communicate ideas.

The texts you encounter in college also have visual or spatial components—an author’s profile picture on a publisher’s website, a reporter’s blog with hyperlinks to recommended websites, embedded videos and podcasts, a scientist’s precise figures and tables within a cutting-edge scientific journal, a business person’s PowerPoint presentation to prospective investors, or the photographic forensic evidence a police detective collects during a routine crime scene investigation.

A viewer or reader will come to many substantial conclusions analyzing a visual or spatial text. There often is not a “right” answer as much as a well-supported approach to a possible idea. Each viewer interprets the image separately (Alfano & O’Brien, 2017).

Whatever discipline you study, chances are you’ll come into contact with images, illustrations, and designs that require a sophisticated and close reading, so you may draw conclusions about the text’s rhetorical significance—its argument—that which the text makes the reader understand or believe.

Audience, Context, Subject, and Purpose

Analyzing a text’s rhetorical significance begins with determining the rhetorical situation—how the communication format, be it visual, written, aural, or any other multimodal form, situates itself on four main concepts: the audience, context, subject, and purpose.

Audience : Who is the intended audience for the text, and how do you know?

Context : What historical, sociological, cultural, political, ideological, or genre situations influence the text? What was happening during the time this text was being created?

Subject and Purpose : What is the author expressing? Why do you think her or she is communicating about this particular idea, issue, or concept?

Visual and spatial rhetoric uses images to communicate ideas. What is Figure 1 communicating?

Visual Rhetoric Sample Analysis: “Cake Batter With Eggs”

Note . From  Mixing Bowl With Flour and Eggs and Spatula , by Clipart.com, 2015 ( https://www.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1792295&tl=photos ). Copyright 2015 by Clipart.com. Reprinted with permission.

Subject : What the author wants the audience to explore.  Example : Homemade cake batter with fresh eggs.

Purpose : Why is the author creating this text?  Example : Perhaps the creator of this photograph wanted to document kitchen adventures or she or he may love to bake.

Audience : Who is the author trying to reach?  Example : Possibly food lovers who like to see how ingredients morph into baked goods.

Context : What historical or value-based situation surrounds this text?  Example : A personal food blog? Perhaps a cooking website? Something fairly contemporary and American given the style of cooking instruments being used (plastic bowl, spatula, and measuring cups (in cups rather than pints or liters used outside the US).

What to Look for in a Visual Text

Next, you’ll want to look at the grounding, color scheme, medium, and typography of the text:

Grounding or the placement of images within a text : What is the most and least prominent element? The first place the eye focuses may seem the most important, but the background may be influencing your understanding of the text as well.

Color scheme, the colors the artist chooses : Blues and greys are associated with water and stone, so they suggest a cooling and calming mood; greens remind people of living plants as well as money, so they can suggest both health and wealth; yellows are commonly used on hospital walls to evoke a softness (in an otherwise noisy environment); and reds express passion as well as anger, creating feelings of energy and excitement.

Medium, the materials the artist chooses : A painter may use watercolor or oil; a sculptor may choose clay, copper, bronze, or iron; a cartoonist may use pencils on paper; and a writer may use a digital medium. The medium can suggest the intended audience as well as the purpose of the communication.

Typography, the appearance of printed characters : What moods do the fonts create?

Typography on a Bakery and Catering Storefront Window

Heading fonts may be different than body text fonts for the purpose of readability. Depending on the intended reader and purpose, fonts may be chosen to express formality or playfulness or to express a particular cultural or historical context.

Visual Rhetoric and Color Theory

Color theory looks at how colors work together to create effective and appealing designs. Certain colors also act symbolically to affect us emotionally.

The color wheel, first developed by Sir Issac Newton, provides a framework for understanding color harmony. The color wheel depicts the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) and the secondary colors (green, orange, and purple), which are formed from mixing the primary colors. The tertiary colors (red-orange, yellow-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, and yellow-green) are formed when primary and secondary colors are mixed.

The Color Wheel

Color harmony suggests that certain colors together create palates that are pleasing to the eye. These color combinations include analogous colors, or any set of three colors that appear next to each other on the color wheel such as blue, blue-green, and green.

Another formula for pleasing color arrangements is to choose complementary colors, or two colors which appear directly opposite each other on the color wheel such as purple and yellow. Finally, a designer may choose to mimic a combination found in nature such as the yellow, red, orange, and brown colors found in autumn foliage.

Image of Markers, Drafting Tools, and Pantone Color Swatches

Color theory also includes the emotional effect of certain colors through natural association and symbolism.

Visual Rhetoric: Analyzing Pictures

When analyzing the rhetorical significance of a photograph, the goal is to uncover its argument. Does the photograph say something about love? Family? Patriotism? Wellness? Success? What happiness is?

In determining the argument, the first elements to analyze are the  audience, context, subject, and purpose . Additionally, you’ll want to consider the following:

• Material context : Where was the picture published? Where is it displayed? Is it the original version or a reproduction (as might be the case for artwork and paintings)?
• Rhetorical Stance : What is the point-of-view of the photographer? Is the photographer a participant in the activity or scene being depicted, or is the photographer an observer? Are the subjects in the picture aware that their photo is being taken? Where is the focus of the image?
• Reality or Abstraction : Is the photograph of a realistic scene, or has it been edited into an abstract piece of art? How do the modifications (if any) affect the meaning of the image? Does the editing serve the purpose of making the people in the picture look younger or more attractive than they might be otherwise?
• Caption and Accompanying Text : Does the photo have a title and/or a caption? Does it accompany written text such as on a website, in a newspaper, or in a magazine? How does the photograph support or illustrate the text? How does the text affect the meaning of the picture? The next section of this resource covers images with text in more detail.

Analyzing Pictures

Photographic elements work together to communicate ideas.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945

Note.  From  Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima , by Joe Rosenthal, 1945, Archives.gov ( https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2015/02/23/raising-the-flag-over-iwo-jima/ ). In the public domain.

Subject or content : The scene or people the photo is depicting.  Example : Five marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raising an American flag on top of Mt. Surabachi, Iwo Jima during World War II.

Purpose : Why is the author creating this text?  Example : The photographer was from the Associated Press. He was documenting the battle of Iwo Jima during WWII.

Audience : Who is the author trying to reach?  Example : The photographer likely intended to reach the American public who revere the American Flag as a symbol of pride and patriotism and who were awaiting news about the progress of the war.

Cultural Context : What is the cultural or historical context of the photograph, and how does that context affect the photograph’s meaning and importance? Example : This photo was taken during the bloodiest battle of WWII when the American public needed reassurance that they were doing the right thing. The photograph was immediately popular and widely reproduced as a message to support the war.

Visual Rhetoric: Images and Text

Authors and designers carefully consider the inclusion and interplay of visual images with text. For example, consider this picture quote from the Purdue Global Facebook page:

Image of Children in the Rain

Note.  From  A Loving Heart , by Purdue University Global, 2020 ( https://www.facebook.com/PurdueGlobal ). Copyright 2020 by Purdue University Global.

In this example, the image of the children holding hands sharing an umbrella interacts with the quote from Tomas Carlyle (1795-1891): “A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.” The text expresses a possible idea behind the image of the children who appear loving. And as this was a Facebook post by a university, the connection to knowledge fits with the context of the webpage.

Consider how your reaction to this picture would be different if the text were removed? What about if the image were removed? Or if the image were changed? These questions are valuable when analyzing and discussing the visual rhetoric of print advertisements, television commercials, websites, and cartoons too.

Visual and spatial texts make arguments, and readers will have different understandings and beliefs about them. Analyzing a text’s subject, purpose, audience, and context, taking into consideration the colors, design, perspective, and the interplay of visuals and language is critical when it comes to developing your own understandings and beliefs and then communicating your own arguments about them.

Alfano, C. & O’Brien, A. (2017).  Envision: Writing and researching arguments  (5th ed.). Pierson Education.  https://bit.ly/32RxV4x

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Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation 1st Edition

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• ISBN-10 0226532321
• ISBN-13 978-0226532325
• Edition 1st
• Publisher University of Chicago Press
• Publication date September 1, 1995
• Language English
• Dimensions 8.88 x 6.16 x 0.97 inches
• Print length 462 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1995)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 462 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226532321
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226532325
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.88 x 6.16 x 0.97 inches
• #301 in Trade
• #1,402 in Arts & Photography Criticism
• #5,007 in Sociology (Books)

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W. j. thomas mitchell.

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University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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Words and Images: An Essay on the Origin of Ideas

Christopher Gauker,  Words and Images: An Essay on the Origin of Ideas , Oxford University Press, 2011, 288pp., $65.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780199599462.

Reviewed by Edouard Machery, University of Pittsburgh

Christopher Gauker's new book is a rich and innovative study of the nature of conceptual thought, its relation to language, the relation between concepts and perception, and the place of imagistic thinking in cognition. Many more topics are broached in passing, including the alleged ambiguity of "concept" in psychology and philosophy (contra Machery (2009), this term is used unambiguously to refer to the constituents of judgments), the myth of folk psychology (it is not true that we predict and explain behavior by ascribing beliefs and desires), the proper interpretation of Kant's opaque theory of concepts, the non-conceptual nature of perceptual content, and the nature of meaning (strictly speaking, words don't have any meaning, although we use the word "meaning" to prescribe how words should be used), and the views of many philosophers (Sellars, McDowell, Prinz, Gärdenfors, etc.) and psychologists (Rosch, Mandler, Barsalou, Tversky, etc.) are critically discussed.

Words and Images is divided into a critical and a constructive part. In the critical part (Chapters 1 to 4), Gauker sharply scrutinizes the views about concepts he believes are mistaken, occasionally rescuing an insight from the ruins his criticisms are supposed to leave behind. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the views that, in different ways, tie together concepts and perception: first, the Lockean view that concepts are abstracted from perceptions, then the Kantian view that concepts are rules of synthesis of perceptions. Chapter 3 examines Churchland's and Gärdenfors's view that concepts are regions of a hyperdimensional mental space. Chapter 4 discusses Sellars's functionalism, Fodor's nativism, and Brandom's normative functionalism.

In the constructive part (Chapters 5 to 8), Gauker develops his own views, starting with the nature of imagistic cognition and its place in cognition (Chapters 5 and 6). Chapter 7 explains how assertions are guided by imagistic representations, while the final chapter defends the identification of conceptual judgments with linguistic assertions in inner speech (which, as Gauker emphasizes, should not be confused with the inner perception of sentences).

The broad outline of Gauker's theory of conceptual thought is familiar: concepts are words, judgments are assertions in inner speech, and there is no conceptual thinking without language. While we've heard that story before, Gauker's remake is worth a detour. This is due in large part to the role played by imagistic cognition. Non-human animals and human beings are hypothesized to possess non-conceptual (in contrast to Gärdenfors's theory), perceptual hyperdimensional mental spaces (think of, e.g., the space of colors), over which similarity measures are defined. (Apparently, we have several such spaces; unfortunately, Gauker does not explain how they are related to one another and how they are organized.) Points in a perceptual space represent perceived or imagined particulars, and their location determines which properties these are represented as possessing. Represented particulars are more or less similar to one another, depending on their distance in these hypothesized perceptual spaces. Causal relations of a limited type (e.g., a billiard ball pushing another one) can also be represented in them. In contrast to particulars and some causal relations, kinds are not represented. For instance, points representing dogs happen to be clustered in the same region of space and to be closer to one another than they are to points representing cats, but their referents are neither represented as dogs nor as forming a kind. Representations of kinds are conceptual, and require a language. Imagistic representations can be more or less accurate, and to that extent they can misrepresent. Endogenously controlled imagistic representations are used to solve many different types of problem. In fact, Gauker goes out of his way to showcase how much can be done with these representations and without concepts -- one of the most interesting aspects of his book. Cognition in non-human animals is exclusively imagistic, and much of human mental life is imagistic too.

Imagistic representations guide the use of words in assertions (including in inner speech) and thus the occurrence of concepts in judgments. Linguistic competence involves being disposed to make various types of assertions in response to various kinds of perceptual representations. Focusing on a simplified language containing atomic (demonstrative + predicate, e.g., "this is red"), disjunctive, and conditional sentences, Gauker maps these kinds of sentences onto different kinds of imagistic representations. Acquiring a language consists in acquiring the relevant dispositions. Perceptions do not provide us with reasons for our judgments (these are not inferred from perceptions, but caused by them), but we are justified in judging the way we do when our judgments are caused by imagistic representations in the right way.

There is much to like in Words and Images . It is ambitious and deals with a fundamental question in the philosophy of mind -- the nature of conceptual thinking. It is full of bold, iconoclastic views  (e.g., communication does not consist in conveying thoughts, words do not have any meaning, behavior is not explained by means of belief and desire ascription), detailed arguments for these views and against competing ones, and careful discussion of possible objections. It moves swiftly between philosophical arguments and psychological hypotheses and results, which is very fitting for the topic.

Before focusing on Gauker's positive claims about conceptual thinking, I will first record a minor reservation with the critical part of the book. Gauker sometimes recycles well-known arguments, and the reader who is conversant with the literature on concepts may find some developments a bit slow. More importantly, despite being canonical among philosophers of mind, some of these arguments are poor. For example, it is often said that if concepts were bundles of beliefs, then we could not change our minds (Gauker uses a version of this argument against Gärdenfors). Changing our mind involves having a belief at t 2 that contradicts a belief held at t 1 , which is possible only if we possess the same concept at t 1 and t 2 . But, if concepts are bundles of beliefs and if beliefs change, then we do not possess the same concept at t 1 and t 2 . We can change our mind, and so concepts are not bundles of beliefs. This argument looses its appeal when concepts are viewed as individuals: What makes a concept at t 1 and a concept at t 2 the same concept is the psychological continuity between the bundle of beliefs that constitutes the former and the bundle that constitutes the latter (Machery, 2010 in response to Hill, 2010).

Gauker's positive proposal will probably leave readers unconvinced. Let's focus first on imagistic cognition. As we saw above, imagistic representations do not represent particulars as belonging to kinds. This claim seems to be challenged by the phenomenon of categorical perception -- viz. by the fact that there are boundaries between regions of perceptual spaces such that a pair of points across a boundary is judged to be more dissimilar than a pair of points within a bounded region even when the distance between points is the same for both pairs (e.g., Harnad, 1987; Gauker is aware of this phenomenon, p. 169). Gauker would probably deny that the categorical nature of perception shows that perceptual representations represent kinds. However, this response is unconvincing since the mind treats all the points within bounded regions of some spaces identically: for instance, in the space of phonemes, all r 's are r 's, function identically in speech perception. More generally, as Matthen has convincingly argued (2005), much of perception consists in digitalizing, i.e., in treating diverse things as being the same. Thus, the ventral temporal cortex includes a sequence of representations that forms a hierarchy of invariances, as shown, e.g., by Tanaka's work. Suppose now that perceptual spaces can represent kinds. This does not entail that perception involves concepts, as Gauker notes in a different, but related context (p. 166), but it means that kind cognition does not require a language. And, if kind cognition does not require a language, then one of the important characteristics of concepts (viz. that particulars that belong to their extensions are represented as being in some sense the same) is not language-dependent. This weakens the need for identifying concepts and words.

Second, Gauker is explicit that not all dimensions are innate and that perceptual spaces can acquire new dimensions. But, since their dimensions are necessarily perpetual (they are "dimensions of perceptual variation," p. 95), it is only the looks or appearances of particulars that are represented in perceptual similarity spaces. If perceptual spaces represent only the looks of particulars, there are limitations to what can be done by representing them in perceptual spaces and by computing their similarity. In particular, any evidence in comparative and developmental psychology that behavior depends on treating perceptually dissimilar objects similarly would undermine the role Gauker assigns to imagistic cognition. It would not straightforwardly follow that animals and non-linguistic babies have concepts and thus that concepts are not necessarily words, since a distinct, non-perceptual and non-conceptual kind of representations could be ascribed to them., But this evidence would probably be more easily explained by a proponent of non-linguistic concepts than by Gauker.

Third, the plausibility of Gauker's views depends on his capacity to explain the behavior of non-linguistic animals (non-human animals and babies) by means of his hypothesized perceptual similarity spaces. He dedicates twenty pages to this task (pp.163-183), but his discussion left me unconvinced. The problem is not that it is obviously mistaken. No, the problem with Gauker's exercise in post-hoc explanation is that his theory is vague and makes few clear, specific predictions. As a result, it is largely a matter of ingenuity and imagination to find explanations consistent with it. If Gauker's theory made specific predictions, then it would be quite a feat to show that the behavior of non-human animals and of babies are exactly those that are predicted. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

I will finish with a brief discussion of Gauker's views about how perceptual spaces guide assertions (Chapter 7). Gauker's exposition is puzzling. He apparently views his account as an empirical hypothesis about how concepts are acquired, but it is nothing of the sort. What it is is a speculative description of the target of language and concept acquisition: what one has to learn to be a competent speaker and thinker. But, Gauker has nothing to say about how the dispositions that for him are constitutive of linguistic and conceptual competence are actually acquired. This is particularly damning since one of his key general concerns with other views of concepts is that they cannot explain how concepts are acquired. Similarly, after having read Chapter 7, the reader will have no idea how the relevant dispositions are acquired.

Harnad, S. (1987). Categorical Perception: The Groundwork of Cognition . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hill, C. (2010). "I love Machery's book, but love concepts more." Philosophical Studies , 149, 411-421.

Machery, E. (2009). Doing without Concepts . New York: Oxford University Press.

Machery, E. (2010). "Replies to my critics." Philosophical Studies , 149, 429-436.

Matthen, M. (2005). Seeing, Doing, and Knowing: A Philosophical Theory of Sense Perception . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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• Writing Tips

How to Format Images in an Essay

• 5-minute read
• 27th April 2022

Writing an essay ? It may enhance your argument to include some images, as long as they’re directly relevant to the essay’s narrative. But how do you format images in an essay? Read on for tips on inserting and organizing images, creating captions, and referencing.

Inserting Images

To insert an image into the text using Microsoft Word:

●  Place the cursor where you want to add a picture.

●  Go to Insert > Pictures .

●  Click on This Device to add pictures from your own computer or select Online Pictures to search for a picture from the internet.

●  Select the image you wish to use and click Insert .

See our companion blog post for further detail on inserting images into documents using Word.

Organizing Images

There are two common methods of organizing images in your essay: you can either place them next to the paragraph where they are being discussed (in-text), or group them all together at the end of the essay (list of figures). It can be clearer to display images in-text, but remember to refer to your university style guide for its specifications on formatting images.

Whichever method you decide upon, always remember to refer directly to your images in the text of your essay. For example:

●  An example of Cubism can be seen in Figure 1.

●  Cubist paintings have been criticized for being overly abstract (see Figure 1).

●  Many paintings of this style, including those by Picasso (Figure 1), are very abstract.

Every image that you include in your essay needs to have a caption. This is so that the reader can identify the image and where it came from. Each caption should include the following:

●  A label (e.g., Figure 1 ).

●  A description of the image, such as “Picasso’s Guernica ,” or “ Guernica : One of Picasso’s most famous works.”

●  The source of the image. Even if you have created the image yourself, you should attribute it correctly (for example, “photo by author”).

Have a look at this example:

Figure 1: Picasso’s Guernica

Photo: Flickr

Here, the image is given both a label and a title, and its source is clearly identified.

Creating Captions Using Microsoft Word

If you are using Word, it’s very simple to add a caption to an image. Simply follow the steps below:

●  Click on the image.

●  Open the References toolbar and click Insert Caption .

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●  Fill in or select the required details and click OK .

You can also add a caption manually.

Referencing Captions

At this point, you’ll need to refer to your style guide again to check which referencing system you’re using. As mentioned above, all sources should be clearly identified within the caption for the image. However, the format for captions will vary depending on your style guide. Here, we give two examples of common style guides:

• APA 7th Edition

The format for a caption in APA style is as follows:

Note. By Creator’s Initials, Last Name (Year), format. Site Name (or Museum, Location). URL

The image format refers to whether it’s a photograph, painting, or map you are citing. If you have accessed the image online, then you should give the site name, whereas if you have viewed the image in person, you should state the name and location of the museum. The figure number and title should be above the image, as shown:

                     Figure 1

Note . By P. Picasso (1937), painting. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/huffstutterrobertl/5257246455

If you were to refer to the image in the text of your essay, simply state the creator’s last name and year in parentheses:

(Picasso, 1937).

Remember that you should also include the details of the image in your reference list .

MLA style dictates that an image caption should be centered, and each figure labeled as “Fig.” and numbered. You then have two options for completing the caption:

1. Follow the Works Cited format for citing an image, which is as follows:

Creator’s Last Name, First Name. “Image Title.” Website Name , Day Month Year, URL.

2. Provide key information about the source, such as the creator, title, and year.

In this case, we have followed option 1:

Fig. 1. Picasso, Pablo. “Guernica.” Flickr , 1937, https://www.flickr.com/photos/huffstutterrobertl/5257246455

When referring to the image in the text of the essay, you need only cite the creator’s last name in parentheses:

And, again, remember to include the image within the Works Cited list at the end of your essay.

Expert Proofreading and Formatting

We hope this guide has left you a little clearer on the details of formatting images in your essays . If you need any further help, try accessing our expert proofreading and formatting service . It’s available 24 hours a day!a

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Literary analysis: applying a theoretical lens.

A common technique for analyzing literature (by which we mean poetry, fiction, and essays) is to apply a theory developed by a scholar or other expert to the source text under scrutiny. The theory may or may not have been developed in the service literary scholarship.  One may apply, say, a Marxist theory of historical materialism to a novel, or a Freudian theory of personality development to a poem. In the hands of an analyst, another’s theory (in parts or whole) acts as a conceptual lens that when brought to the material brings certain elements into focus. The theory magnifies aspects of the text according to its special interests. The term  theory may sound rarified or abstract, but in reality a theory is simply an argument that attempts to explain something. Anytime you go to analyze literature—as you attempt to explain its meanings—you are applying theory, whether you recognize its exact dimensions or not. All analysis proceeds with certain interests, desires, and commitments (and not others) in mind. One way to define the theory—implicit or explicit—that you bring to a text is to ask yourself what assumptions (for instance, about how stories are told, about how language operates aesthetically, or about the quality of characters’ actions) guide your findings. A theory is an argument that attempts to explain something.

Let’s turn again to the insights about using theories to analyze literature provided in Joanna Wolfe’s and Laura Wilder’s  Digging into Literature: Strategies for Reading, Analysis, and Writing (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016).

Here’s a brief example of a writer using a theoretical text as a lens for reading the primary text :

In her book,  The Second Sex , the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir describes how many mothers initially feel indifferent toward and estranged from their new infants, asserting that though “the woman would like to feel that the new baby is surely hers as is her own hand,. . . she does not recognize him because. . .she has experienced her pregnancy without him: she has no past in common with this little stranger” (507). Sylvia Plath’s “Morning Song” exemplifies the indifference and estrangement that de Beauvoir describes. However, where de Beauvoir asserts that “a whole complex of economical and sentimental considerations makes the baby seem either a hindrance or a jewel” (510), Plath’s poem illustrates how a child can simultaneously be both hindrance and jewel. Ultimately, “Morning Song” shows us how new mothers can overcome the conflicting emotions de Beauvoir describes.

Daniel DiGiacomo.  From Mourning Song to “Morning Song”: The Maturation of a Maternal Bond.

Notice that in this brief passage, the writer fairly represents de Beauvoir’s theory about maternal feelings, then goes on to apply a portion of that theory to Plath’s poem, a focusing move that establishes the writer’s special interest in an aspect of Plath’s text. In this case, the application yields new insight about the non-universality of de Beauvoir’s theory, which Plath’s poem troubles.  The theory magnifies a portion of the primary text, and its application puts pressure on the soundness of the theory.

Applying a Theoretical Lens: W.E.B. Du Bois Applied to Langston Hughes

Experienced literary critics are familiar with a wide range of theoretical texts they can use to interpret a primary text. As a less experienced student, your instructors will likely suggest pairings of theoretical and primary texts.  We would like you to consider the writerly workings of the theory-primary text application by examining a student’s paper entitled “Double-consciousness in ‘Theme for English B,” an essay which uses W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory (of  double-consciousness ) to elucidate and interpret Langston Hughes’s poem (“Theme for English B”). W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was an American sociologist, civil rights activist, author, and editor. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was an American poet, activist, editor, and guiding member of the group of artists now known as the Harlem Renaissance.

But before you can make sense of that student’s essay, we ask that you read both a synopsis of the  theoretical text   and the   primary text .

Primary Text

The instructor said,

Go home and write  a page tonight.

And let that page come out of you—

Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it’s that simple?

I am a twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.

I went to school there, then Durham, then here

to this college on the hill above Harlem,

I am the only colored student in my class.

The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,

Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,

the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator

up to my room, site down, and write this page:

It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me

at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what

I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:

hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.

(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?

Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.

I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.

I like a pipe for a Christmas present,

or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach.

I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like

the same things other folks like who are other races.

So will my page be colored that I write?

Being me, it will not be white.

But it will be  a part of you, instructor.

You are white—

yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.

That’s American.

Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that’s true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me—

although you’re older—and white—

and somewhat more free.

Theoretical Text 

W.E.B. Du Bois

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

O water, voice of my heart, crying in the sand,

All night long crying with a mournful cry,

As I lie and listen, and cannot understand

The voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea.

O water, crying for rest, is it I, is it I?

All night long the water is crying to me.

Unresting water, there shall never be rest

Till the last moon drop and the last tide fall,

And the fire of the end begin to burn in the west;

And the heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea,

All life long crying without avail

As the water all nigh long is crying to me.

                    —Arthur Symons

Between me and the other world there is an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or I fought at Mechanicsville; or Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain sadness that I was different from the others; or, like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world as by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination time, or beat them at a footrace, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the hears all this fine contempt began to fade; for the worlds I long for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head—some way. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white, or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his tw0-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strengths alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

This, then, is the end of his striving: To be a coworker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius. These powers of body and mind have in the past been strangely wasted, dispersed, or forgotten. The shadow of a might Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the Shadowy and of Egypt the Sphinx. Throughout history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness. Here in America, in the few days since Emancipation, the black man’s turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very strength to loos effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, like weakness.  And yet it is not weakness—it is the contradiction of double aims. The double-aimed struggle of the black artisan—on the one hand to escape white contempt for a nation of mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, and on the other hand to plough and nail and dig for a poverty-stricken horde—could only result in making him a poor craftsman, for he had but half a heart either cause. By the poverty and ignorance of his people, the Negro minister or doctor was tempted toward quackery and demagogy; and by the criticism of the other world, toward ideals that made him ashamed of his lowly tasks. The would-be black savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people needed was a twice-told tale to his white neighbors, while the knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own flesh and blood. The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but confusion and doubt in the soul of the black artist; for the beauty revealed to him was the soul-beauty of a race which his larger audience despised, and he could not articulate the message of another people. This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation, and at times has even seemed about to make them ashamed of themselves.

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faither as did the American Negro for two centuries. To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites. In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand. At last it came—suddenly, fearfully, like a dream. With one wild carnival of blood and passion came the message in his own plaintive cadences:—

“Shout, O children!

Shout, you’re free!

For God has bought your liberty!”

Years have passed away since then—ten, twenty, forty; forty years of national life, forty years of renewal and development, and yet the swarthy scepter sits in its accustomed seat at the Nation’s feast. In vain do we cry to this our vastest social problem:—

“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble!”

The Nation has not yet found peace from its since; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land. Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.

The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for freedom, the boon that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp—like a tantalizing will-o-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the headless host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan, the lies of carpetbaggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom. As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him. The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him. And why not? Had not votes made war and emancipated millions? Had not votes enfranchised the freedmen? Was anything impossible to a power that had done all this? A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom. So the decade flew away, the revolution of 1876 came, and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired. Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power—a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of “book-learning”: the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know. Here at last seemed to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway to Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life.

Up the new path the advance guard toiled, slowly, heavily, doggedly; only those who have watched and guided the faltering feet, the misty minds, the dull understandings, of the dark pupils of these schools know how faithfully, how piteously, this people strove to learn. It was weary work. The cold statistician wrote down the inches of progress here and there, noted also where here and there a foot had slipped or someone fallen. To the tired climbers, the horizon was ever dark, the mists were often cold, the Canaan was always dim and far away. If, however, the vistas disclosed as yet no goal, no resting place, little but flattery and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection and self-examination; it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect. In those somber forests of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself—darkly as through a veil; and yet he saw in himself some faint revelation of his power, of his mission. He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another. For the first time he sought to analyze the burden he bore upon his back, that deadweight of social degradation partially masked behind a half-named Negro problem. He felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home, without land, tools, or savings, he had entered into competition with rich, landed, skilled neighbors. To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. He felt the weight of his ignorance,—not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet. Nor was his burden all poverty and ignorance. The red stain of bastardy, which two centuries of systematic legal defilement of Negro women had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient African chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of corruption from white adulterers, threatening almost the obliteration of the Negro home.

A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems. But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair. Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the natural defense of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity against crime, the “higher” against the lower races. To which the Negro cries Amen! and swears that to such much of this strange prejudice as is founded on just homage to civilization, culture, righteousness, and progress, he humbly bows and meekly does obeisance. But before that nameless prejudice that leaps beyond all this he stands helpless, dismayed, and well-nigh speechless; before that personal disrespect and mockery, the ridicule and systematic humiliation, the distortion of fact and wanton license of fancy, the cynical ignoring of the better and the boisterous welcoming of the worse, the all-pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything b lack, from Toussaint to the devil—before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and discourage any nation save the black host to whom “discouragement” is an unwritten word.

But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate. Whisperings and portents came borne upon the four winds: Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what we need of education, since we must always cook and serve? And the Nation echoed and enforced this self-criticism, saying: Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for half-men? Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud—and behold the suicide or a race! Nevertheless, out of the evil came something of good—the more careful adjustment of education to real life, the clearer perception of the Negroes’ social responsibilities, and the sobering realization of the meaning of progress.

So dawned the time of Sturm und Drang: storm and stress today rocks out little boat on the mad waters of the world-sea; there is within and without the sound of conflict, the burning of body and rending of soul; inspiration strives without doubt, and faith with vain questionings. The bright ideals of the past—physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands—all these in turn have waxed and waned, until even the last grows dim and overcast. Are they all wrong—all false? No, not that, but each alone was oversimple and incomplete—the dreams of a credulous race-childhood, or the fond imaginings of the other world which does not know and does not want to know our power. To be really true, all these ideals must be melted and welded into one. The training of the schools we need today more than ever—the training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and above all the broader, deeper, higher culture of gifted minds and pure hearts. The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense—else what shall save us from a second slavery? Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek—the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty—all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gamed through the unifying ideal of Race; the idea of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other race, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that someday on American soil two world races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack. We the darker ones come even now not altogether empty-handed: there are today no truer exponents of the pure human spirit of the Declaration of Independence than the American Negroes; there is not true American music but the wild sweet melodies of the Negro slave; the American fairy tales and folklore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness. Will American be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? of her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs?

Merely a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great republic is the Negro Problem, and the spiritual striving of the freedmen’s sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name of an historic race, in the name of this the land of their fathers’ fathers, and in the name of human opportunity.

Using a Theoretical Lens to Write Persuasively

Applying a theoretical lens to poetry, fiction, plays, or essays is a standard academic move, but theories are also frequently applied to real-world cases, hypothetical cases, and other non-fiction texts in disciplines such as Philosophy, Sociology, Education, Anthropology, History, or Political Science. Sometimes, the theoretical lens analysis is called a  reading , as in a “Kantian reading of an ethical dilemma,” or a “Marxist reading of an historical episode.” At other times, the application of a theory is known as an  approach , as in a “Platonic approach to the question of beauty.”

The basic writerly moves to using a theoretical lens include:

• name and cite the theoretical text and accurately summarize this text’s argument. Usually this short summary appears in one or two paragraphs at the beginning of the essay. You will want to be sure your summary includes the key concepts you use in your paper to analyze the primary literary text.
• use the surface/depth strategy to show how deeper meanings in the primary text can be explained by concepts from the theoretical text.  You might think about this as creating a “match argument” between the primary and theoretical text (or case under consideration). Take important points made in the theoretical argument and match them to particular events or descriptions in the primary text. For instance, you could argue Langston Hughes’s line  So will my page be colored as I write? (27) matches Du Bois’s argument that the veil prevents Whites from seeing Black’s individuality. Such a match argument can form an organizing structure for the essay as you develop whole paragraphs to support different points of connection between the theoretical and primary texts. You may be able to devote an entire paragraph to the claim that Du Bois’s concept of “the veil” can help us understand Hughes’s description of the challenges his speaker faces in asking his instructor to see him on his own terms.
• support your surface/depth claims linking the primary and theoretical texts with textual evidence from the primary text . If you claim that a particular passage exemplifies a particular theory, you need to provide evidence in the form of quotations or paraphrases to support this interpretation. This evidence will most certainly need to be provided from the primary text you are analyzing but perhaps also occasionally from the theoretical text, too, especially if you connect the primary text to a small detail in the theoretical text or if the wording of the theoreticl text helps you explain something in the primary text. Use the patterns strategy to provide multiple examples from the primary text supporting your claims that it matches elements of the theoretical text.
• reveal something complex and unexpected about the primary text. The goal of the theoretical lens strategy—like all strategies of literary analysis—should be to show that the text you are analyzing is complex and can be understood on multiple levels.
• challenge, extend, or reevaluate the theoretical text (for more sophisticated analyses).  The most sophisticated uses of the theoretical lens strategy not only help you better understand the primary text but also help you better understand—and reveal complexities in—the theoretical text. When you first start applying this strategy, it may be sufficient to argue how the theoretical text helps you understand the primary text, but as you advance, you should attempt the second part of this strategy and use the primary text to extend or challenge the theoretical argument. Such arguments may serve as starting points for you to contribute to literary (or philosophical, or sociological, or historical) theory as a theorist yourself. These arguments are often made in the concluding paragraphs of analyses using the theoretical lens strategy.

Common Words and Phrases Associated with Theoretical Lens

A Sample Student Essay

Title: Double-consciousness in “Theme for English B”

Paragraph 1

The post-slavery history of African-Americans in the United States has been one of struggle for recognition. This struggle continued through the civil rights movement in the 1970s and ’80s. W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most influential African-American leaders of the early twentieth century, described the complicated effects racism had on African-American selfhood. In his treatise  The Souls of Black Folk , Du Bois introduces the term “double-consciousness” to describe African-Americans’s struggle for self-recognition. Double-consciousness is the sense of “always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (8). It means that an African-American “[e]ver feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body” (8). According to Du Bois, double-consciousness means that African-Americas are always judging themselves through a veil of racism, experiencing how others judge and define them rather than how they might define and express themselves.

Paragraph 2

Langston Hughes’s poem “Theme for English B,” written nearly fifty years after Du Bois’s essay, depicts one African-American’s continued struggle with double-consciousness. However, where Du Bois sees double-consciousness as a painful condition he hopes will one day disappear, Hughes seems to have a more positive view, suggesting that mainstream Americans should also have an opportunity to experience this condition. Instead of eradicating double-consciousness, Hughes seeks to universalize it. His poem suggests that true equality will be possible when all cultures are able to experience and appreciate double-consciousness.

Paragraph 3

We see the poem’s speaker struggling with double-consciousness when he expresses difficulty articulating what is “true” for himself. Hughes writes:

It’s not easy to know what is true for you and me

I feel and see and hear. Harlem, I hear you:

(I hear New York, too.) Me—who? (16-20)

In this passage, which concludes with a question about who he is, the speaker expresses a divided self. At first, he seems to identify with Harlem, an African-American neighborhood in New York, where he is currently sitting and writing. However, this identification becomes troubled by his acknowledgment that Harlem does not completely define him. When the speaker writes “hear you, hear me—we two” (19), he suggests that “you” (referring to Harlem) and “me” (referring to himself) are intimately related by not identical. They are two voices that, while both present in his poem, still “talk” (19) to one another. The fact that these voices converse, rather than speak as one, indicates they are not completely merged.

Paragraph 4

This sense of a divided self is further reinforced by the claim “(I hear New York, too.)” (20). This aside is interesting because it establishes Harlem as both separate from and connected to the larger city. This division reflects what Du Bois calls the “two-ness [of being] an Amercan [and] a Negro” (8). By placing New York in parentheses, the speaker may be suggesting that the American part of himself represented by New York plays a weaker role in his identity than the African-American self represented by Harlem. Like Du Bois, the speaker in “Theme for English B” experiences inner conflict when he tries to reconcile the different parts of himself.

Paragraph 5

We further see evidence of the speaker’s conflict when he writes that he likes “Bessie, bop, or Bach” (24). “Bessie” refrs to the popular blues singer Bessie Smith, an African-American woman who sang a very African-American style of music. At the other end of the spectrum is “Bach,” which refers to the classical European composer J.S. Bach and represents a traditionally White form of music. In the middle is “bop,” which refers to “bebop,” a form of jazz made popular in the 1940s that inspired a particular form of dance most practiced by White teenagers at the time. In saying that he likes all of these forms of music, the speaker indicates that he is a mix of both African and European identities—like Du Bois, he feels both traditional White and traditional African-American culture calling him.

Paragraph 6

The “page” that the poem’s speak has been asked to write likewise reflects the two-ness of being African-American. An essay can be thought of as black ink on white paper, which in the context of the poem represents Black identity articulated against a White background. The speaker refers to this conflict of identities when he writes, “So will my page be colored that I write? / Being me, it will not be white” (27-28). These lines suggest that the speaker is worried that his instructor will only see him as a representative Black student. It shows how the speaker is caught in a double bind: when the teacher asks the class to write something “true” (5), he will expect this particular student (who in the first stanza tells us he is the only Black student in the class) to write in a way consistent with his obvious Black heritage. But the student is aware that his White teacher doesn’t really know what it means to be Black. Thus, if he writes in a way that fulfills his instructor’s expectations, he will write a page that seems to a White teacher to be an authentic depiction of what it means to be Black—in other words, a White representation of Blackness. This dilemma illuminates what Du Bois refers to as “always looking at one’s self thorugh the eyes of others” (8). Because the speaker in the poem is so aware of what his instructor (and possibly the other students in the class) already thinks of him, he is having difficulty articulating just who he really is.

Paragraph 7

At the end of the poem, however, instead of calling for the eradication of double-consciousness as Du Bois does when he longs for the day that African-Americans will be able to “merge his double-self into a better and truer self” (9), Hughes seems to suggest that instead his instructor needs to feel the double-identity that he feels so strongly. Thus, he writes “You are white— / yet a part of me, as I am a part of you” (31-32) and “As I learn from you, / I guess you learn from me—” (36-37). These lines indicate that the White instructor needs to accept, African-American identity as part of his own culture, just as the speaker has needed to see both parts of his identity calling him. This ability to feel and be multiple perspectives, cultures, and backgrounds at once is labeled “American” in the second stanza. Hughes seems to be suggesting that even though the”two-ness” he feels is often difficult and painful, it needs to be seen as central to American—and not just African-American—identity. When he states at the end of the poem, “I guess you learn from me” (38), he is turning the tables on the teacher, and on Whites in general, by suggesting that they have as much to learn from exploring Black culture as Blacks have to learn by studying classic White culture.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, images of organization: an essay review.

Journal of Educational Administration

ISSN : 0957-8234

Article publication date: 1 February 1989

Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization compels attention and invites reflection. Morgan himself describes the work as a treatise on metaphorical thinking which contributes to the theory and practice of organisational analysis (p. 16). Hence it stands directly in the tradition of writers such as Pepper and Kuhn, whose works have included a study of the impact of root metaphors and cognitive paradigms on our understanding of the world.

(1989), "Images of Organization: An Essay Review", Journal of Educational Administration , Vol. 27 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009961

Copyright © 1989, MCB UP Limited

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How to Create an Engaging Photo Essay (with Examples)

Photo essays tell a story in pictures. They're a great way to improve at photography and story-telling skills at once. Learn how to do create a great one.

Learn | Photography Guides | By Ana Mireles

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Photography is a medium used to tell stories – sometimes they are told in one picture, sometimes you need a whole series. Those series can be photo essays.

If you’ve never done a photo essay before, or you’re simply struggling to find your next project, this article will be of help. I’ll be showing you what a photo essay is and how to go about doing one.

You’ll also find plenty of photo essay ideas and some famous photo essay examples from recent times that will serve you as inspiration.

If you’re ready to get started, let’s jump right in!

Table of Contents

What is a Photo Essay?

A photo essay is a series of images that share an overarching theme as well as a visual and technical coherence to tell a story. Some people refer to a photo essay as a photo series or a photo story – this often happens in photography competitions.

Photographic history is full of famous photo essays. Think about The Great Depression by Dorothea Lange, Like Brother Like Sister by Wolfgang Tillmans, Gandhi’s funeral by Henri Cartier Bresson, amongst others.

What are the types of photo essay?

Despite popular belief, the type of photo essay doesn’t depend on the type of photography that you do – in other words, journalism, documentary, fine art, or any other photographic genre is not a type of photo essay.

Instead, there are two main types of photo essays: narrative and thematic .

As you have probably already guessed, the thematic one presents images pulled together by a topic – for example, global warming. The images can be about animals and nature as well as natural disasters devastating cities. They can happen all over the world or in the same location, and they can be captured in different moments in time – there’s a lot of flexibility.

A narrative photo essa y, on the other hand, tells the story of a character (human or not), portraying a place or an event. For example, a narrative photo essay on coffee would document the process from the planting and harvesting – to the roasting and grinding until it reaches your morning cup.

What are some of the key elements of a photo essay?

• Tell a unique story – A unique story doesn’t mean that you have to photograph something that nobody has done before – that would be almost impossible! It means that you should consider what you’re bringing to the table on a particular topic.
• Put yourself into the work – One of the best ways to make a compelling photo essay is by adding your point of view, which can only be done with your life experiences and the way you see the world.
• Add depth to the concept – The best photo essays are the ones that go past the obvious and dig deeper in the story, going behind the scenes, or examining a day in the life of the subject matter – that’s what pulls in the spectator.
• Nail the technique – Even if the concept and the story are the most important part of a photo essay, it won’t have the same success if it’s poorly executed.
• Build a structure – A photo essay is about telling a thought-provoking story – so, think about it in a narrative way. Which images are going to introduce the topic? Which ones represent a climax? How is it going to end – how do you want the viewer to feel after seeing your photo series?
• Make strong choices – If you really want to convey an emotion and a unique point of view, you’re going to need to make some hard decisions. Which light are you using? Which lens? How many images will there be in the series? etc., and most importantly for a great photo essay is the why behind those choices.

9 Tips for Creating a Photo Essay

Credit: Laura James

1. Choose something you know

To make a good photo essay, you don’t need to travel to an exotic location or document a civil war – I mean, it’s great if you can, but you can start close to home.

Depending on the type of photography you do and the topic you’re looking for in your photographic essay, you can photograph a local event or visit an abandoned building outside your town.

It will be much easier for you to find a unique perspective and tell a better story if you’re already familiar with the subject. Also, consider that you might have to return a few times to the same location to get all the photos you need.

2. Follow your passion

Most photo essays take dedication and passion. If you choose a subject that might be easy, but you’re not really into it – the results won’t be as exciting. Taking photos will always be easier and more fun if you’re covering something you’re passionate about.

3. Take your time

A great photo essay is not done in a few hours. You need to put in the time to research it, conceptualizing it, editing, etc. That’s why I previously recommended following your passion because it takes a lot of dedication, and if you’re not passionate about it – it’s difficult to push through.

4. Write a summary or statement

Photo essays are always accompanied by some text. You can do this in the form of an introduction, write captions for each photo or write it as a conclusion. That’s up to you and how you want to present the work.

5. Learn from the masters

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Making a photographic essay takes a lot of practice and knowledge. A great way to become a better photographer and improve your storytelling skills is by studying the work of others. You can go to art shows, review books and magazines and look at the winners in photo contests – most of the time, there’s a category for photo series.

6. Get a wide variety of photos

Think about a story – a literary one. It usually tells you where the story is happening, who is the main character, and it gives you a few details to make you engage with it, right?

The same thing happens with a visual story in a photo essay – you can do some wide-angle shots to establish the scenes and some close-ups to show the details. Make a shot list to ensure you cover all the different angles.

Some of your pictures should guide the viewer in, while others are more climatic and regard the experience they are taking out of your photos.

7. Follow a consistent look

Both in style and aesthetics, all the images in your series need to be coherent. You can achieve this in different ways, from the choice of lighting, the mood, the post-processing, etc.

8. Be self-critical

Once you have all the photos, make sure you edit them with a good dose of self-criticism. Not all the pictures that you took belong in the photo essay. Choose only the best ones and make sure they tell the full story.

9. Ask for constructive feedback

Often, when we’re working on a photo essay project for a long time, everything makes perfect sense in our heads. However, someone outside the project might not be getting the idea. It’s important that you get honest and constructive criticism to improve your photography.

How to Create a Photo Essay in 5 Steps

Credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh

1. Choose your topic

This is the first step that you need to take to decide if your photo essay is going to be narrative or thematic. Then, choose what is it going to be about?

Ideally, it should be something that you’re interested in, that you have something to say about it, and it can connect with other people.

2. Research your topic

To tell a good story about something, you need to be familiar with that something. This is especially true when you want to go deeper and make a compelling photo essay. Day in the life photo essays are a popular choice, since often, these can be performed with friends and family, whom you already should know well.

3. Plan your photoshoot

Depending on what you’re photographing, this step can be very different from one project to the next. For a fine art project, you might need to find a location, props, models, a shot list, etc., while a documentary photo essay is about planning the best time to do the photos, what gear to bring with you, finding a local guide, etc.

Every photo essay will need different planning, so before taking pictures, put in the required time to get things right.

4. Experiment

It’s one thing to plan your photo shoot and having a shot list that you have to get, or else the photo essay won’t be complete. It’s another thing to miss out on some amazing photo opportunities that you couldn’t foresee.

So, be prepared but also stay open-minded and experiment with different settings, different perspectives, etc.

5. Make a final selection

Editing your work can be one of the hardest parts of doing a photo essay. Sometimes we can be overly critical, and others, we get attached to bad photos because we put a lot of effort into them or we had a great time doing them.

Try to be as objective as possible, don’t be afraid to ask for opinions and make various revisions before settling down on a final cut.

7 Photo Essay Topics, Ideas & Examples

Credit: Michelle Leman

• Architectural photo essay

Using architecture as your main subject, there are tons of photo essay ideas that you can do. For some inspiration, you can check out the work of Francisco Marin – who was trained as an architect and then turned to photography to “explore a different way to perceive things”.

You can also lookup Luisa Lambri. Amongst her series, you’ll find many photo essay examples in which architecture is the subject she uses to explore the relationship between photography and space.

• Process and transformation photo essay

This is one of the best photo essay topics for beginners because the story tells itself. Pick something that has a beginning and an end, for example, pregnancy, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the life-cycle of a plant, etc.

Keep in mind that these topics are linear and give you an easy way into the narrative flow – however, it might be difficult to find an interesting perspective and a unique point of view.

• A day in the life of ‘X’ photo essay

There are tons of interesting photo essay ideas in this category – you can follow around a celebrity, a worker, your child, etc. You don’t even have to do it about a human subject – think about doing a photo essay about a day in the life of a racing horse, for example – find something that’s interesting for you.

• Time passing by photo essay

It can be a natural site or a landmark photo essay – whatever is close to you will work best as you’ll need to come back multiple times to capture time passing by. For example, how this place changes throughout the seasons or maybe even over the years.

A fun option if you live with family is to document a birthday party each year, seeing how the subject changes over time. This can be combined with a transformation essay or sorts, documenting the changes in interpersonal relationships over time.

• Travel photo essay

Do you want to make the jump from tourist snapshots into a travel photo essay? Research the place you’re going to be travelling to. Then, choose a topic.

If you’re having trouble with how to do this, check out any travel magazine – National Geographic, for example. They won’t do a generic article about Texas – they do an article about the beach life on the Texas Gulf Coast and another one about the diverse flavors of Texas.

The more specific you get, the deeper you can go with the story.

• Socio-political issues photo essay

This is one of the most popular photo essay examples – it falls under the category of photojournalism or documental photography. They are usually thematic, although it’s also possible to do a narrative one.

Depending on your topic of interest, you can choose topics that involve nature – for example, document the effects of global warming. Another idea is to photograph protests or make an education photo essay.

It doesn’t have to be a big global issue; you can choose something specific to your community – are there too many stray dogs? Make a photo essay about a local animal shelter. The topics are endless.

• Behind the scenes photo essay

A behind-the-scenes always make for a good photo story – people are curious to know what happens and how everything comes together before a show.

Depending on your own interests, this can be a photo essay about a fashion show, a theatre play, a concert, and so on. You’ll probably need to get some permissions, though, not only to shoot but also to showcase or publish those images.

4 Best Photo Essays in Recent times

Now that you know all the techniques about it, it might be helpful to look at some photo essay examples to see how you can put the concept into practice. Here are some famous photo essays from recent times to give you some inspiration.

Habibi by Antonio Faccilongo

This photo essay wan the World Press Photo Story of the Year in 2021. Faccilongo explores a very big conflict from a very specific and intimate point of view – how the Israeli-Palestinian war affects the families.

He chose to use a square format because it allows him to give order to things and eliminate unnecessary elements in his pictures.

With this long-term photo essay, he wanted to highlight the sense of absence and melancholy women and families feel towards their husbands away at war.

The project then became a book edited by Sarah Leen and the graphics of Ramon Pez.

Picture This: New Orleans by Mary Ellen Mark

The last assignment before her passing, Mary Ellen Mark travelled to New Orleans to register the city after a decade after Hurricane Katrina.

The images of the project “bring to life the rebirth and resilience of the people at the heart of this tale”, – says CNNMoney, commissioner of the work.

Each survivor of the hurricane has a story, and Mary Ellen Mark was there to record it. Some of them have heartbreaking stories about everything they had to leave behind.

Others have a story of hope – like Sam and Ben, two eight-year-olds born from frozen embryos kept in a hospital that lost power supply during the hurricane, yet they managed to survive.

Selfie by Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer whose work is mainly done through self-portraits. With them, she explores the concept of identity, gender stereotypes, as well as visual and cultural codes.

One of her latest photo essays was a collaboration with W Magazine entitled Selfie. In it, the author explores the concept of planned candid photos (‘plandid’).

The work was made for Instagram, as the platform is well known for the conflict between the ‘real self’ and the one people present online. Sherman started using Facetune, Perfect365 and YouCam to alter her appearance on selfies – in Photoshop, you can modify everything, but these apps were designed specifically to “make things prettier”- she says, and that’s what she wants to explore in this photo essay.

Tokyo Compression by Michael Wolf

Michael Wolf has an interest in the broad-gauge topic Life in Cities. From there, many photo essays have been derived – amongst them – Tokyo Compression .

He was horrified by the way people in Tokyo are forced to move to the suburbs because of the high prices of the city. Therefore, they are required to make long commutes facing 1,5 hours of train to start their 8+ hour workday followed by another 1,5 hours to get back home.

To portray this way of life, he photographed the people inside the train pressed against the windows looking exhausted, angry or simply absent due to this way of life.

You can visit his website to see other photo essays that revolve around the topic of life in megacities.

Final Words

It’s not easy to make photo essays, so don’t expect to be great at it right from your first project.

Start off small by choosing a specific subject that’s interesting to you –  that will come from an honest place, and it will be a great practice for some bigger projects along the line.

Whether you like to shoot still life or you’re a travel photographer, I hope these photo essay tips and photo essay examples can help you get started and grow in your photography.

Let us know which topics you are working on right now – we’ll love to hear from you!

Check out these 8 essential tools to help you succeed as a professional photographer.

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Ana Mireles is a Mexican researcher that specializes in photography and communications for the arts and culture sector.

Penelope G. To Ana Mireles Such a well written and helpful article for an writer who wants to inclue photo essay in her memoir. Thank you. I will get to work on this new skill. Penelope G.

Herman Krieger Photo essays in black and white

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The Painstaking Quest to Portray a Tortured Warrior

For the hyperrealistic visuals in the video game Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, the studio traveled to Iceland, took thousands of photos and spent months on motion capture.

By Lewis Gordon

Lewis Gordon reported from Cambridge, England.

They arrive unexpectedly, flickering moments that make you unsure if you are peering at a video game or the real world.

Cold sunlight that causes wet rocks to turn blindingly bright. Undulating hills slinking off into the misty nothingness of the horizon. The nearly photorealistic face of Senua, the unconventional hero of this 10th-century revenge tale, as she grimaces with every sinew taut, her veins bulging.

The verisimilitude of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, which releases on Tuesday for the PC and the Xbox Series X|S, is so exact, cutting-edge and convincing that it seems possible for players to entirely suspend their disbelief.

One could argue that this hyperrealism is paramount for a third-person action game that presents a pictorial realm of visions and wonders, of fire-breathing humans and slithering giants. Yet these folkloric flourishes are grounded by earthy, authentic details like the flecks of muck and gore that accumulate on the characters.

“The goal is to move people,” Dom Matthews, the 40-year-old leader of the game’s developer, Ninja Theory, said from its plush studio in Cambridge, England. “Our belief is that we do that through delivering an experience that is believable. When someone forgets that they’re in a video game level and is focused on the narrative journey of Senua, then they’re opened up to be moved emotionally.”

The first Hellblade game, Senua’s Sacrifice , took place in the immediate aftermath of catastrophe: Vikings had murdered Senua’s village on the Scottish archipelago of Orkney and sacrificed her lover, Dillion, to Norse gods. Players directed Senua to the underworld of Helheim so she might save his soul.

In the sequel, Senua’s purview is expanded as she makes her way across the stormy North Sea to Iceland, intent on tracking down those responsible for his death.

The franchise’s emphasis on authenticity and realism extends into the singular phantasms of its protagonist, who suffers from psychosis. The turbulent mental state of Senua, played with fierce, haunted intensity by Melina Juergens, often manifests in disconcerting ways: chattering internal voices that swirl around her in 3-D audio and wraithlike enemies that are figments of her imagination.

Alongside this interior landscape, Ninja Theory has gone to extreme lengths to achieve believability for the physical world, basing a huge proportion of its in-game material directly upon real-world sources through a process it calls “capturing reality.” The intensively motion-captured combat system was the product of 70 grueling days with a stunt team, and field recordings were gathered in Iceland, Scotland and Wales.

The rough terrain Senua walks upon, plotted with huge volcanic rocks blotched with fluorescent lichen, was stitched together from satellite imaging, drone footage and photogrammetry, said Chris Rundell, an environment artist. The team took thousands of photos of stones, trees, shrubs, traditional turf houses and tiny Viking-esque statues they had carved themselves before scanning them into the computer.

“You get a perception of the scale of the place, but also how things feel, sound, smell,” said Rundell, who wanted to impart his own experience of Iceland — the bludgeoning rain, the softness and harshness of the mossy, craggy ground — onto the game. “Being there, and being able to touch that stuff, you carry it back with you.”

Dan Crossland, a character art director whose unkempt hair and dark beard would make him a perfect extra in a medieval movie epic, spoke proudly of commissioning real costumes for Senua and other characters from an artist in London. On display in one of the studio’s many lounge areas, which are also filled with reference books for subjects like art history and programming, these costumes were constructed from leather, cotton and hemp using period-appropriate techniques like weaving. Crossland then scuffed up and even burned the outfits to make them feel more lived-in, hoping to evoke the “raw, broken-down state” of life in 10th-century Iceland.

“There’s nothing too gamey about it. It’s just matter-of-fact: what materials they had, what was available,” he said. “It’s a survival thing.”

Senua’s Saga takes place around the time that the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, was founded in 930. This was a place of “isolated communities,” said the scriptwriter Lara Derham, one where “folklore and religion were densely woven into societies and into the land itself.” Senua has a predilection for seeing runic patterns in the environment, crucial for solving puzzles and unlocking the path forward.

These runic puzzles tap into the “horrible, bubbling sense of uncertainty” that those experiencing psychosis can encounter, said Paul Fletcher , a professor of neuroscience at Cambridge University who advised Ninja Theory on both Senua games.

Fletcher does not believe that it is anachronistic to speak of psychosis in the medieval period, noting a “quite surprising level of sophistication” in which people then talked about mental illness and, specifically, madness. There are classification systems within historical documents, he said, that reveal a “compassionate approach to understanding people.”

“It would often entail things like being thrown into turmoil by grief or battle terror,” he said, “or going off into the wilderness with a quest in order to expiate your sins.”

For a game that foregrounds such a subjective perspective, the idea of “capturing reality” might appear a strange, even paradoxical, approach. Yet it offers something like a base line over which the game’s designers and artists have added impressionistic layers of sparkling and shimmering mental perception. The moon shines just a little more intensely; the colors of Iceland’s primordial landscape appear just a touch more vibrant; particles and debris billow in the air dramatically. It is a world of vivid hyperreality through the eyes of a character whose cognitive faculties seem to function in overdrive.

Fletcher sees these elements as consistent with Senua’s mental state. “Very often in psychosis, people feel incredibly close to natural occurrences,” he said. Even time itself is changed, an eerie dusk segueing into bewitching night in what feels like the blink of an eye.

These details add up to a strikingly aestheticized adventure, one that seamlessly blurs the boundary between the imaginary and real. The protagonist’s slippery grasp of reality and the ravishing visuals that move beyond the “ uncanny valley ,” the result of both sheer polygon processing power and deft artistry, arguably push Senua’s Saga as close to photorealism as the interactive medium has come. It is tricks of the mind all the way down.

Yet this simultaneously visceral and illusory experience is rooted by Senua. With her subconscious splayed onto the screen with terrifying and beatific aplomb, Matthews said it was vital she remained a believable person.

“In the same way that we’re translating a real-life costume into the game digitally, we’re trying to do the same with the reality of people’s experiences and that of neuroscience,” Matthews said.

The aim is for the player to feel both the full force of distance between themselves and Senua, a 10th-century woman with a remote belief system, as well as an intimate and often uncomfortable closeness.

Inside the World of Video Games

What to Play Next?: For inspiration, read what our critics thought about the newest titles , as well as which games our journalists have been enjoying .

Mysteries of the Afterlife:  In a strong month for indie games , our critic checked out the 10-hour adventures of Hauntii, Crow Country and Paper Trail.

Beyond the Uncanny: For the hyperrealistic visuals in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II , the studio traveled to Iceland and spent months on motion capture.

Minecraft Turns 15:   A robust speedrunning community  is smashing records and keeping interest in Minecraft high. (Pro tip: Spawn near Buried Treasure.)

Building on Success: Hades II pursues a tantalizing past , our critic writes. The small studio behind the game was once considered anti-sequel .

A Rooting Interest:  Many people can summon memories at the mention of a cherished sports video game. We want to know which one is your favorite .

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The Images of Time: An Essay on Temporal Representation

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Do we ‘perceive’ time? In what sense does memory give us access to the past? Can photographs and paintings capture more than a single moment? What is ‘fictional time’? These apparently disparate questions all concern the ways in which we represent aspects of time, in thought, experience, art, and fiction. They also raise fundamental problems for our philosophical understanding, both of mental representation, and of the nature of time itself. This book brings together issues in philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, and literary theory in examining the mechanisms underlying our representation of time in various media, and brings these to bear on metaphysical debates over the real nature of time. These debates concern questions over which aspects of time are genuinely part of time's intrinsic nature, and which, in some sense, are mind-dependent. Arguably, the most important debate concerns time's passage: does time pass in reality, or is the division of events into past, present and future simply a reflection of our temporal perspective — a result of the interaction between a ‘static’ world and minds capable of representing it? It is argued that contrary to what perception and memory lead us to suppose, time does not really pass, and this surprising conclusion can be reconciled with the characteristic features of temporal experience. The book goes on to consider the representation of time in art and fiction, and draws on the metaphysical and psychological themes previously discussed to cast light on the nature of depiction and fictional narrative.

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