La Syntaxe de l’image

La Syntaxe de l’image – Introduction à l’alphabétisation visuelle – How do you learn to read images? Donis A. Dondis’s essay is a precise, well-documented approach to the mechanisms at work in this process. While reading an image may seem to be a matter of intuition, this experienced teacher demonstrates that it is more akin to learning a language, with its alphabet, lexicon and syntax requiring specific instruction.
Richly illustrated, La Syntaxe de l’image is aimed at anyone wishing to analyze the visual environment that surrounds us and understand the forms that make it up. This theoretical reflection is accompanied by numerous examples and references ranging from painting and sculpture to architecture, graphic design and cinema, all of which help us to understand how our visual skills work and how to put them to use. The text is accompanied by practical exercises to help you practice your visual skills.

This work, translated into French for the first time, has become a reference work in both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries since its publication in the 1970s. Like John Berger’s Voir le voir, La Syntaxe de l’image aspires to become a classic of visual communication literature.

Translated from the English by Marie-Mathilde Bertolotti

Foreword by Alessandro Ludovico