«Immerse yourself in images and recognise hidden messages!»

Mrs Saro, your foundation wants to encourage a wide audience to read and decode images. Why is that?

At first glance, many images appear to depict reality. In reality, they are constructs with their own codes. That is why we should not only see images, but also decode and interpret them.

What shapes our perception and that of our children?

In this context, I don't like to differentiate between parents and children. In the media, femininity and masculinity are characterised - we are presented with two humanities. These stereotypes influence us all.

And which female and male stereotypes are presented to us today?

The woman smiles, often has light-coloured eyes and is fair-skinned, even if she is African or Asian. The atmosphere is often pink or light blue. Colour images predominate. The posture is contorted, the woman stands on tiptoe with an extreme hollow back - very unnatural. She often looks up at the viewer and is photographed from the side.
The man looks confident and unyielding, the pictures are often in black and white. He looks down at us, usually frontally. And he is often presented as a hero.

But how should we read such images?

We have become so accustomed to the stereotypes described that we no longer consciously recognise them. We should immerse ourselves in the picture more often and look around, not just see the beautiful colours and shapes. We have to learn to look deeper in order to recognise the content.

Give us an example: How do we practise seeing with our children?

Collect pictures and look at them together with your children! Concentrate on one theme - for example, faces, bodies, people at work, doing sport or in fashion. First, everyone looks at the pictures individually and lets them sink in. Then talk about your impressions: What do I notice? What surprises me? Which pictures arouse emotions in me? It is particularly important to look and compare emotional comments: What is really in the picture and what comes from my internalised image?

What do we learn?

We realise that we can't separate ourselves as well as we would like. That is important. It's not about defining what is good or bad. It's about recognising what influences us, when and how.

Is that all?

That's already a lot. If we look closely at a picture, we also recognise how much it has been retouched. Although young people know in theory that pictures are altered and are aware of the possibilities, they often don't recognise the retouching. A simple exercise is as follows: Try to recreate poses of the people pictured, then you will notice what still works and what doesn't. Another way to recognise retouching is to compare eye or neck areas - of women, men, children, babies. Women's skin is often so smoothly retouched that not even baby skin can keep up.

At what age can you start reading pictures with children?

Early. This already works with children's books. Look at the pictures with your children and discuss: Which animals represent men? Which women? What characters are there besides animals and how are they depicted? Which elements make a character a man or a woman? Codes are there from a very early age, so they can be thematised very early on. It's not about fighting against them. But it's important to recognise them, broaden your horizons and keep the choice. As children get older, they can also draw characters in new and different ways and retell the story with the changed characters: Does this change the role of individual characters? Does the story change?

Are young people unaware of the codes and playing with them?

Only in part, because they usually only recognise some of the codes and use clichés without thinking. Our aim is to make children and young people aware that they are jointly responsible for their reality, which is created by images. Because it is only when they decipher codes that they recognise external and internal images and see the world in a new way. This gives rise to questions and new answers.
Image: Pexels

«I SEE A SWITZERLAND IN WHICH CURIOSITY ON THE NET IS HARMLESS»

from the current Swisscom campaign
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THE EXPERT

Eva Saro is an artist, image consultant, animator, initiator and director of the images et société foundation. She has been running practical courses in visual decoding for 20 years. www.images etsociete.org