In this portion of the analysis, I would like to work through accounting for emotional affect in an image that is not tied to linguistics or any other code. I want to talk about everything that is left over after working through semiotics. Semiotics, while immensely useful, cannot exclusively account for how images make us feel. Iconic images do not simply represent something. If that were the case, there would not be that one iconic image that rose up above all the others. Iconic images, by definition, make us feel something.

In his book, What Do Pictures Want?, W.J.T. Mitchell says, " We want to know what pictures mean and what they do: how they communicate as signs and symbols, what sort of power they have to effect human emotions and behaviors" (28). Countless scholars have pondered over the question of how out of the millions of images that exist, which document these events, why have these risen up above all the rest? The symbolism behind any photo of 9/11 or raising the American flag at Iwo Jima (or any other important event) is strong, but what I have been exploring in this analysis is what makes these particular photos of important events strong. What is it about the photos themselves that strikes a cord with viewers. Part of the explanation resides in the term affect. When looking at an iconic image, a collective and excessive emotional experience has occurred within a group of people, which has, in part, propelled the image to iconic status. This emotional reaction, or affect, cannot be contained by language. Affect occurs when one looks at a photo and they have a feeling about what they see, but it cannot be attributed to the symbolism in the photo. Something is happening inside them that cannot be contained in the meaning systems, but rather it resides in the realm of feeling. Mitchell says of photographs, "They present not just a surface but a face that faces the beholder" (Mitchell 30).

I chose the image of the firefighter and child to represent this idea because the photo became significant to all parents. The parents of this child originally were horrified and angry with the image, but later came to be willing to share the photograph with parents who did not know of the moment of death for their child. This is tied to affect because people bring life experiences in viewing anything. An emotional connection must be set up between the viewer and the subjects in the photograph in order for it to become iconic. There is no other way. People are self oriented and if an aspect of self is not implicite in the photograph, a level of detachment occurs, which renders an image unsuccessful in obtaining iconic status. The photos discussed in this analysis leave no room for detachment or disassociation.

Works Cited

Mitchell, W.J.T. What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005. Print.