How my understanding of death has changed

To begin with, I was somewhat sceptical about this task. I thought that analysing an image related to death, by investigating signs and symbols, would be straightforward and not challenging in any way; how wrong was I? Firstly, I realised that by selecting a picture which was indirectly linked to death, my analysis could be deeper and more thought provoking. I had  heard about Picasso’s ‘blue period’ on a game show, and it was mentioned that all of his paintings during this time were a tribute to his friend, who committed suicide at the age of twenty one. I then trawled through a website honouring the work of Picasso, and the ‘Old Guitarist’ painting appealed to me. I could see the anguish clearly in the face of the protagonist, and realised that there must be a story of symbolical importance behind it.

   The essay also demonstrated that identifying signs and symbols is a complicated task. This has increased my knowledge and overall awareness of semiotics and death.

From a connotative perspective, there is no boundary to analysis; and that there are many and varied interpretations for one image. It occurred to me that death was a vague, yet an identifiable concept. Previously, I have never really given death a second thought, I have always recognised the inevitability of it, but did not understand the complexity of the signs and symbols that might be associated with it. I have since recognised that death is not just about funerals and the colour black but through sound, mise-en scene, camera angles and lighting etc, it can be conveyed in numerous forms.