In this essay I will explore how semiotic analysis throw light on how female gender is represented in British culture. The photograph I have chosen to investigate is taken from Alexander McQueen's AW/14 campaign, starring English model Eddie Campbell shot by photographer Steven Klein. The campaign captures the narrative and essence of the romantic and wild beauty, which beautifully encounters into idea of how the appearance of vulnerability does not equal weakness.
To interpret and analyze this advertising campaign I am going to use Roland Barthes' semiotic model and support it with works from Jonathan Bingel's Media Semiotics, Liberty McAnena's essay Lost Girls, Greek myth about Amazons, K. D. Reynolds' book Aristocratic Women and Political Society in Victorian Britain and suffragette movement.
Image one, Alexander McQueen campaign picture was published on their web page on 29th July 2014 as part of their autumn winter campaign. It is a print and digital based, mass produced photograph. It denotes a dark big room with high sealing and a female sitting on a chair. Her right hand is gently holding a black horse and her left hand is gently gripping the chair. Her eyes are closed. She has long black hair, dark make up and she is wearing hand jewelry on both hands as well as a headpiece tied in her hair. She is dressed in a long black gown and we are not able to see where the dress ends. There is a fireplace without the fire on her left hand-side, as well as two candleholders with even number of candles behind her, one on her left hand-side and the other on her right hand-side, behind the horse. Each candleholder has four candles but the total number of candles that we are able to see is six, as the other two are hidden behind the horse. There is an infinitive black and dark blue tapestry on the floor, which is giving the impression that at some point it is merging with a dress. The biggest element on the photograph is a black horse.
