Image Analysis

The picture that I chose is of an African woman holding her baby, who seems suffering from malnutrition. I took this picture from the UNICEF website, and this is one image among others for the UNICEF campaign against food crisis in Sahel region. As you can all know, the Sahel region has a very complex history in terms of food shortages and security problems, and the food crisis is getting worse this year because of the widespread unrest in Africa. This image creates a maximum emotion because we can notice the misery and the sadness in the mother’s face, because her innocent child is suffering from the terrible consequences of this food crisis. The main target audience for such picture is of course the developed countries who have the mean to help poor countries solving this food crisis.

In this picture, the mother is holding her baby, but we cannot clearly see her face because she has her head down. However, the child isseeing the photographer, as if the sender wants to get the sympathy of the target audience. This is a directive image because the sender, UNICEF, is trying to influence the target audience, meaning the developed countries, to take rapid actions to save children from the Sahel region from dying of starvation.

This image belongs to the Windows category because the photographer depicts the reality of food crisis in the Sahel region in a very direct and natural way. The format of this image is a horizontal rectangular one, which basically attracts the viewers’ eyes. Also, there is compatibility between the composition and the meaning of this picture and the photographer is attracting the attention of the viewers on the child first, who is the focal point on that image. This image has an asymmetrical composition which creates more dynamism. This image is taken from a bird’s eye view, and it is taken from a close-ups distance which gives this sense of closeness with the mother and her child.