Belonging in Visual Texts

Belong is the feeling or concept of being connected to someone, a place, object or ideaology. Belong is important because it as known as one of a humans basic needs and is required for someone to reach their optimum in life. In the image presented we can draw on the notion that belonging is the feeling of connectedness to someone not merely the presence of other people. The picture incorporates the idea that being alone and being lonely are two different things. Someone may be alone however feel a sense of connectedness to themselves and the world around them and in contrast someone may be surrounded by people yet lack a sense of connectedness to anything and therefore feel like they don’t belong. In the picture we see the latter concept, the idea that the woman is surrounded by people yet feels no sense of belonging due to a lack of connectedness.

These ideas are represented through numerous visual techniques within the photo. A salient image produced directs our attention to the lady sitting in the middle, isolated from the people around her. The salient image is produced by vector lines, that is the appearance of a circular shape or perimeter around the lady, this further influencing our idea of alienation. In addition the lady is placed in the very centre of the image drawing attention to her loneliness.

The body positioning of every person in the image gives us the idea of exclusion and isolation. The lady in the middle is holding her legs close to her chest in a huddled position, this represents the notion that she is trying to find a sense of belonging and is only receiving this from herself, she holds herself trying to find some closeness and a relationship. The surrounding people are all positioned with there backs to or facing away from the middle lady. This further represents the idea of exclusion and lack of belonging felt by this lady.

All of the visual techniques presented in the image are used to