Semiotics in Photography

Every type of art has its own purpose and message to deliver. Photography is not an exception. My biggest interest is in street photography and documentary. It might seem to straight forward with nothing hidden. Viewer is absorbing information which is presented there and then. One might think that it's too flat, leaves no space for interpretation, etc. I do think that photos of everyday life, life happening next door, on your street or somewhere very very far away, can deliver message in simple manner or in such, that would leave one absorbing and digesting it for days.
The symbols, hidden messages can be found in all type of photography. One might see message hidden behind the scene, face, expression in the photograph, others might take the photograph itself as a whole message and a sign.
Most commonly semiotics is noticed within advertising. Unfortunately usually what we see is never what we get. Advertising is attempt to sell, therefore it's made to be pleasant to view, able to attract, being persuasive in a hidden manner. In my opinion, semiotics within advertising is real art of sales and manipulation. Fashion photography, photography for advertising, sales, and us not getting what we were expecting, shut the door in our minds which helps to see signs and messages hidden in the work which reflects us and the real world we're living in.
As an example I chose photograph of Villagers collecting scrap from a crashed spacecraft by Jonas Bendiksen. Behind this beautiful and romantic image is hidden history, which is neither so beautiful nor romantic. This image delivers us signs of carelessness and indifference towards planet Earth and our own home.

Jonas Bendiksen, Villagers collecting scrap from a crashed spacecraft, surrounded by thousands of white butterflies, Altai Territory, Russia, 2000.

http://www.gunnarswanson.com/writing/TruthInPhotography.pdf

wikipedia.org

http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/rhethtml/signifiers/sigsave.html

http://www.sauer-thompson.com/junkforcode/archives/2009/08/photography-sem.html