Dear Reader,

Before I took this class, I had making and creating images through my art for years, through painting, photography and graphic design, so I was quite aware of images in my everyday life as I have always found them fascinating. However, this class has helped me refine my ability to analyze and understand images, and the intentions behind their visual rhetoric.

I think I specifically now notice how images are captioned to be repainted a certain way that injects them with bias. After the essay I wrote on the Life Magazine article, and the harmful rhetoric of the captions of images, I now notice this in my daily life, specifically with media and news outlets. Images that are seemingly neutral and harmless are captioned or taken out of context to depict a certain narrative.

I think I am the proudest of the presentation on the dichotomy of homeschooling and public schooling that me and Audrey did. Having Audrey as a partner for the project, I was able to learn from someone who was actually homeschooled for the majority of their life. As someone who attended public schooling, I valued learning about something I was unfamiliar with. I think the presentation was very interesting to explore as well, specifically how media demonizes both sides of the divide.

I will take away from this class the ability to see images in a nuanced way and understand all their dimensions. Each visual element and decision often has layers of meaning that contribute to a very interesting and sometimes powerful narrative once deconstructed.