Framing the Image

Chapter 2, ‘Framing the Image’, considers the nature and status of the visual image in art and culture. It examines the inherently ambiguous character of images and the often ambivalent attitudes taken towards them: an image is a self-contained entity which re-presents, and depends upon, something other than itself. Yet an image is also about itself, in so far as it draws attention to its own design and material composition. People are fascinated by, yet often suspicious of, representational images—images which sometimes seem capable of upstaging their originals.