Visual Rhetoric Images  photographs copyright, Wm. Rogers

Sample 2—Picture: Pineapple Walk                
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riverWalk
Text:
You take "Pineapple Walk" to get from the Heights down to the river; then you can row yourself across the river in one of the small rowboats tied up on the riverbank for that purpose. When you get across the river just tie up the borrowed boat on the far side of the river for someone to eventually use in the reverse direction.

Analysis:
Of course following the above directions would not be as easy as the message implies, and it would not be safe to row across the river (actually there are no rowboats provided for river crossings). But the picture and the text combine to create a fictional image within a real setting. Pineapple Walk is real even if a bit short in length, the river is real, the Heights neighborhood is real, the city across the river is real. But, the photo has been altered, using a computer program, to look more like a drawing or painting.

The picture, by itself, does not suggest anything about rowing across the river. Yes, the text without the picture could be legitimate if it referred to some remote location where rowboats were actually used in place of a bridge or ferry. With the picture and text taken together, however, there is a story-line, that some might believe true. And even the impression that one could just step into a rowboat on the river at the bottom of the path is false. The drop from the promenade just below the path is likely more than 100 feet
to the riverbank which in turn is shielded by industrial properties. [See chapters 8, 11, and 13 (on community campaigns)]