What is Visual Literacy?

It depends on who is looking! Visual Literacy is the ability to think about and interpret imagery, kind of like "reading." A proper understanding of how to read images is important because images reflect, communicate, and help shape our culture. It’s a complex issue, however, because interpretation is subjective — everyone brings their unique perspectives and life history into interpretation. Photographs can also be manipulated in various ways and degrees, so we can also consider how "true" the image is.

Session contents:

• Ken Light - In Depth - Wayne Miller and Sebastiao Salgado
• Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), San Diego, California
• Suzie Katz - Photographic Memories

Suggested Reading:

Adams, Robert. Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews. (New York: Aperture, 1994)

Adatto, Kiku. Picture Perfect:  Photography in the Age of the Photo Op. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)

Adatto, Kiku. "Photography Changes the Ways Political Messages Are Packaged." Click! Photography Changes Everything, Smithsonian Institute. Web article. (http://click.si.edu/Story.aspx?story=595)