1. For an overview of visual literacy and its importance watch the following video: What is Visual Literacy?

2. Read Diyanni, Chapter 4 up to page 95.
3. Read the short text on the photo of Nastassja and the Serpent. What is your reaction to this photo? How is Kinski portrayed here?

Now compare Avedon’s photo with the attached The Temptation of Eve by John Spencer Stanhope and the Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Cleopatra by Piero di Cosimo. How does his photo different from these earlier paintings? What are the roles of the woman and the serpent in each? Do you think Avedon knew about those images when he took the photo?