Wednesday, November 15, 2-5pm
Teatro Santa Ana, Relox 50A
Free

Visual Literacy in our Increasingly Digital World - talk

SANDRA LAURIN
Visual Literacy in our Increasingly Digital World
This presentation will highlight the history and the continuing progress of visual messages to
inform, record, and tell stories. What is visual literacy? How can we decipher actual truth from
misinformation in constructed visuals? How can we identify when manipulated photos are
negatively impacting our personal and collective memories? How can we improve our visual
fluency?

The phrase “a photo is worth a thousand words” is never so true as today with the prolific input of
images on social media. Due to advances in technology, everyone is a photographer and
everyone can disseminate news (true or false). This lecture will highlight the history of visuals from
cave art, up to emojis and avatars. We will explore ways of decoding visuals as well as
demonstrate how to create visual stories.

The presenter, Sandra Laurin is a travel photographer and adventurer who has travelled to 56
countries to highlight the people, their culture, customs, and the environment. Her "focus" is to
photograph less fortunate people in order to contribute to an awareness of social issues. She has
delivered numerous presentations following her volunteer photography projects with
Photographers Without Borders in Ecuador, as well as Ghana and Mexico.

Her work has been included in several group shows, magazines and books. She was honored in
several camera club contests, won the KAYA Responsible Travel award in 2012, and in 2014 she
won the Nikon competition for Colour in our World.
Photographs from her solo exhibit and project “Human Trafficking in Thailand” were included in the
2012 document on Trafficking of Persons, issued by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

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