1/18 Project Introduced 

1/22 Introduction of Iconographic Tracking Methodology 

1/29 Icon Analysis Blog Due, (Project Proposal)  

2/5 Project Due 

My class began to prepare for our individual projects by examining Laurie Gries’ methodology of iconographic tracking in her project “Mapping Obama Hope”. I was really fascinated by the idea of tracking the way an image is used and redistributed across platforms. I had always noticed the marketability of shared human experiences and wanted to focus on the ways that the emotions behind an image can been used to propel its recirculation. The photograph of “The Kiss” was first introduced to me in a history textbook, but that was certainly not the only place I had seen it. I came across t-shirts and mugs and more modern adaptations of the original image everywhere I went. As the image was not initially created for commercial purposes, I was interested in better understanding the various ways in which circulation had capitalized on the emotions within the historical photograph.  

I began my project by creating a project proposal in the form of a blog post. Before I was able to investigate the ways in which the image had been re-used and commercialized, I had to better my understanding and appreciation for the original photograph. The blog post assignment allowed me to solidify my reason for choosing this image and provided me with a starting point in my analysis. 

I then began to collect my data. Using Google search, I found different ways in which the original image had been re-purposed and re-circulated. This was the most arduous part of the process, as I had to individually archive and categorize each image in order to see larger patterns. It also proved challenging to find which patterns to focus on. After consulting my instructor, I was able to choose specific elements to discuss in my analysis of the data. I realized that the emotional aspects were central to the continued relevance of the photograph, and that due to this the historical context was often overlooked. After initially presenting my project in the form of a blog post, I transformed it into the final format of an Adobe Spark page. This allowed me to provide clear examples and visually engage viewers in ways that plain text could not. 

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