No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy By Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007; pp xi + 419 $3000 cloth If you find iconic photography, visual culture, and liberal-democratic citizenship interesting enough to read this review beyond its first sentence, I have little doubt that you should read Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites' brilliant contribution to the growing body of literature engaging these topics The book is unquestionably valuable to academicians investigating rhetoric, media, criticism, visual and popular culture, and twentieth century US history The work also contributes substantially to the discussions of political and social theorists interested in citizenship, liberal-democratic culture, and/or the unstable line between public and private Given its significance to academics, the book is surprisingly accessible to laypersons Anyone working with a modest academic vocabulary should understand Hariman and Lucaites' primary arguments and will certainly be provoked by their narratives and analyses of the photographs In short, No Caption Needed appeals to a broad and interdisciplinary audience The work performs a close reading of nine iconic photographs and various artifacts that appropriate elements of them to show how they address the question "what is citizenship in a democracy?" Hariman and Lucaites position their critique at the contradictory intersection inherent in liberal-democratic polity, namely the simultaneous emphasis on individual identity and collective action which compete when liberty and obligations conflict In various ways, Hariman and Lucaites show how each of these iconic photographs engage the relationship of liberal and democratic ideals, arguing that these icons are powerful because they embody the conception of a human being as an "individuated aggregate" (88) Thus, the photographs all teach, perpetuate, and-through appropriation-negotiate what it means to be a citizen in a democratic state By tracing these lessons across time, Hariman and Lucaites argue that the dialectic between individual and collective in our contemporary democratic society has become imbalanced: "the icons of US public culture increasingly underwrite liberalism more than they do democracy" which threatens "democracy itself' (19) Hariman and Lucaites make a very strong case for these arguments, in part because their descriptions of the iconic photographs are extremely compelling Reading their descriptions I feel that I see the icon as they do--which is no small feat In general it is relatively easy to feel that we share with others a perspective on something written or spoken, because the cultural codes used to interpret such texts are so conventional and widespread that they obscure slight differences in comprehension But it is widely believed that a photograph can elicit so many responses that it becomes impossible to contain them all; that a picture is "worth a thousand words" expresses this sentiment perfectly To overcome this Hariman and Lucaites write eloquence bordering on poetry that provides readers a highly developed sense of their perspective Their ways of seeing in these icons an interaction of image, aesthetics, and emotion force us to look at the photographs again and again Even if we end up seeing these images differently, we cannot help but comprehend their view, and we cannot simply look away Importantly, Hariman and Lucaites' stance from the beginning of the book is that theirs is not the only valid or useful perspective This allows readers to retain or craft their own way of seeing while developing an understanding of how the authors vision the image Interpretation of the iconic photograph thus becomes a source of dialogue, a locus of interaction where different views can be brought together to develop a better sense of who we--that is, those for whom the image resonates as an icon of our liberal-democratic culture--are …

No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy

This essay is a reflection on the ways in which visual media have evolved since the 1994 publication of the author's book Visual “Literacy”: Image, Mind, and Reality. The essay focuses on two major technological changes in visual media, and on the cultural transformations that have accompanied those changes. The first technological change is the development of increasingly powerful techniques for the digital manipulation of photographs and the creation of computer-generated photorealistic images. Reviewing this development, which has made the task of detecting visual fraud more challenging, the essay assesses the likelihood that it may also have brought about an enhancement in societal levels of visual “literacy.” Such an enhancement may also be a by-product of the second technological change discussed in this essay, namely, the increasing availability of digital networks for the dissemination of images and for public commentary about those images. The essay examines the use of such commentary for questio...

Visual “Literacy” in the Digital Age

This article advances a rhetorical theory of deixis, a theoretical and methodological orientation that infuses the linguistic concept of deixis with rhetorical understandings of ethos, place, and time. Deixis reveals the rhetorical dynamics within the fabric of spoken discourse, dynamics that often refer to what is outside the text to make sense of what is within it. Ultimately, I argue that identifying the deictic indicators within a speech text enables the critic to pinpoint where, how, and why a speaker activates the physical elements of the speech situation as a material means of persuasion. After outlining the theoretical tenets of this approach, I analyze Harry S. Truman's Address to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on June 29, 1947, to show how a rhetorical theory of deixis orients the critic to the bodies, places, and temporalities implied in and displayed through speech.

Toward a rhetorical theory of deixis

Can pictures say no or not? : Negation and denial in the visual mode

https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4996&context=etd

Imagining American democracy: The rhetoric of new conservative populism

Thomas Ferstle, Assessing Visual Rhetoric: Problems, Practices, and Possible Solutions (Saarbrucken, Germany: Verlag Dr. Muller, 2007), xi + 204 pp. $76.00. Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Sue Hum, and Li...

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Paul Messaris

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Review Essay: What's Visual about “Visual Rhetoric”?