Pictorial Dissonance

It's more normally the case that people use the phrase 'cognitive dissonance' when discussing verbal tactics, and almost never will you encounter them explaining that the tactics of cognitive dissonance are just as easily applied to images, photographs, and movies.

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And we live in such a totally visual culture now that it's probably more important to perceive what propagandists are doing in the visual arena - in the visual media, and also with pics and images generally. I mean sure there are the obvious recent examples of outright propaganda - the kid lying face down in the beach sand, ISIS and their victims in orange jump-suits, all that sort of thing - but what is altogether more subtle and much more damaging, is the sheer 'photographic/stylistic illiteracy' of modern photographers.

Photographic picture composition is a complex area but traditionally it had six main 'rules:' simplicity, symmetrical balance, asymmetrical balance, radial balance, rule of thirds, and 'framing.' But today, a simple Google search for some image or other will reveal a long litany of pics that are cluttered, 'un-composed,' and dissonant.
  
For me it is possible to consider photographic image composition nowadays as part of the overall field of industrial design...

...Beautifully composed pic, in my opinion

Now I want to discuss more deeply why I believe deliberately poor shot composition is a political and sociological propaganda tactic that is pathological.

But for just right now, let me just post a couple of decently-composed modern photographs which show that subtle ways to impart information are intrinsic to the art of modern photography, especially as it is used in on-line endeavors.