Composition Matters...Or Does it?

Chapter six from Reading Images, written by Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, discusses “The Meaning of Composition” in images, advertisements, television shows, and other mediums.  Kress and van Leeuween make several convincing arguments regarding the composition of images that we see on a daily basis.  I had never heard of the “rules” they advocate, and after researching a bit I found it difficult to accept their theory.

Kress and van Leeuween argue “a theory of language is no longer sufficient and must be complemented by theories which can make the principles of the new visual literacy explicit” (Kress).  They address their theories with three directives of composition.  According to the authors, “Composition…relates the representational and interactive meanings of the image to each other through three interrelated systems” (Kress):

1.  Information Value: The location of images associate them with their informational value
2. Salience: The images must draw the attention of viewers and prove their relevance
3. Framing: Including or omitting framing devices shows importance to other items nearby

In some mediums with a divide down the middle of the image, the left side of the image is the “given” and the right side is the “new.”  For instance, in this Taylor Swift feature in Seventeen Magazine, the singer is placed on the left side of the page as a familiar face, while the article and new information on the music star are on the right.

However, there are plenty of popular images that do not fit within the constraints of the authors’ rules.  Oprah, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, anchors on CNN, magazine spreads in Vogue, and the like do not follow this theory.  In fact, I had a more difficult time finding images that did fit into the criteria than those that did not.  Do you think the authors’ theory is followed or merely a suggestion of how images should be compiled?  Are images that do not fit within the constraints of the theory as aesthetically pleasing to you as images that do? See below examples that defy the theory set out by Kress and van Leeuwen.

 

Vogue Magazine spread

Nike advertisement