Why is visual literacy important?

We live in an increasingly visual culture. We are surrounded by images everywhere in our lives. By looking at and studying photographs with your students, you will help them better understand the complexities of their world.Visual literacy is defined as the ability to understand communications composed of visual images as well as being able to use visual imagery to communicate to others. Students become visually literate by the practice of visual encoding (expressing their thoughts and ideas in visual form) and visual decoding (translating and understanding the meaning of visual imagery).It is important that students learn to recognize and understand the often-complex messages of photographic images.