Le Nouvel Observateur asked expert image analyst François Jost to give his interpretation of François Hollande’s campaign poster, but reading several judgements by other people led him to comment about the amateur interpretations and especially the comparisons made with Mitterrand’s poster from the 1981 campaign.
Article Source: “L'affiche de campagne de François Hollande et ses interprétations saugrenues”, François Jost, edited by Hélène Decommer, Le Nouvel Observateur(30/03/2012)
Mine is a strange profession: I’m a semiologist. When people tell me they don’t understand what this means, I say “sociologist”. When people think they do know, they imagine I read images like fortune-tellers read tarot cards. And it’s this representation of semiology that has led various amateurs – historians and journalists – to offer their own interpretations of François Hollande’s poster.
Let’s leave aside the comments of Jean-Michel Aphatie, for whom this poster recalls East Germany in the sixties, where, as we know, democratic consultations were particularly numerous…
Beyond this politically inflected judgement, I have come across two common types of “readings”. The first consists in highlighting the background in front of which Hollande is placed and quickly knocking together a cause and effect relationship. He is standing in front of a country landscape, so he is a friend of the countryside. The same people sometimes point out that a visual rhetoric reminiscent of the Mona Lisa is at work. So does that mean the Mona Lisa is a friend of the countryside? This is the logical conclusion of such a “decoding”…
Rather than rushing headlong into a symbolic reading which has little to do with semiology, we would be better advised, if we want to explain this image, to start with a few simple statements resulting from plain observation.
Little connection with Mitterrand’s poster
Firstly, the space allotted to the scenery is reduced to a minimum. Rather than resembling it in this respect, this is actually in stark contrast to Mitterrand’s 1981 campaign poster, in which the landscape took up more than half the space.
Secondly, while Mitterand was placed in front of a Romanesque church, which both belonged to French cultural heritage and anchored the country in Christianity, Hollande is in front of natural scenery in which the presence of human beings (a village) can barely be discerned. A nod in the direction of the Green Party?
This landscape therefore represents little more than a geographical affiliation, the socialist leader’s land of choice, specifically the land where he was elected. Unlike the sea behind Sarkozy, which calls for a symbolic reading (the ship’s helmsman before or after the storm…), Hollande’s poster calls for a literal reading. You’ll notice that the recent parodies of Hollande’s poster are more often based on changing Hollande’s face or his slogan. It is much less easy to make visual additions to the poster (the sinking ship on parodies of Sarkozy’s, for example).
Thirdly, those who claim that Hollande’s poster is similar to Mitterand’s are not paying much attention to enunciation: while Mitterand was in three-quarter view (and looking to our left), Hollande is looking us in the eye. These are very codified positions : the three-quarter view suggests inwardness and reflection (one wonders what trick Sarkozy is planning in “La France forte”…), whereas facing the viewer connotes frankness, and most of all gives a meaning to the slogan “le changement, c’est maintenant” (“Change is now” or “Now is the time for change”). In a visual situation that recalls conversation and dialogue, this sentence is like a message thrown out to us, which we can seize upon like the candidate.
The text
This brings me to a detail that has largely been overlooked: the date of the first round just above the slogan. The adverb “now”* is what linguists call a deictic, specifically it refers to the enunciative present. Thus its meaning shifts along with the time-frame of the speaker. Instead of leaving this time-frame hanging, however, the date sets a deadline. Now begins on the 22nd of April… In other words, vote tactically, and play your part in the coming change…
These are three or four of the things expressed by this poster. Of course, one could also mention the blue suit and tie, which are consensual, or the glasses, which allow Hollande’s gaze to be clearly seen, and many other elements. But these observations are just as valid for the candidate in real life, beyond the poster. A semiological analysis should focus on this particular collection of visual elements… that we call a poster.
* It’s imporant that the French maintenant (‘now’) is etymologically ‘holding in the hand’. Jost might well be influenced by this, for example, when he says the slogan is like a message we can ‘seize upon’ or ‘grasp’.
Translation: Fleur Houzé and Noémie Leroy
Editing: Sam Trainor