Explain the difference between Denotative and Connotative
-By 'denotative' is meant the literal meaning and significance of any element in the image. A gesture, an expression, an object remains just that - a literal detail of the overall image. Meaning thus operates at the most basic of levels, a simple recognition of what we look at: a smile, a table, a street, a person. But beyond this moment of recognition the reader moves to a second level of meaning, that of the 'connotative' aspects of the elements of the scene. Thus connotation is 'the imposition of second meaning on the photographic message proper' ... 'its signs are gestures, attitudes, expressions, colours, and effects endowed with certain meanings by virtue of the practice of a certain society'. In other words, series of visual languages or codes which are themselves the reflection of a wider, underlying process of signification within the culture.
Discuss the Denotative and Connotative attributes of the two Arbus images. Present the comparison as a paragraph of text
Diane Arbus Identical Twins, 1967
Diane Arbus A Family on Their Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, New York, 1969