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Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 6 2o20 (Travel) Rhian Waller | Postcolonial Pictures 45 These phenomena occur when there is little reliable evidence to support the narrative and even when the link is not explicitly causal. This diffusion of meaning is likely to occur in travel writing and cover images, which share commonalities with journalism and photojournalism, affecting audience perceptions of the cultures and peoples depicted. However, as Stasch points out, “images are more foundationally representations of the culture of the photograph makers and viewers than of the culture [of those depicted]” (2011). This analysis, therefore, will focus on making visible the implicit aspects of these representations, bearing in mind that these pho- tographs are selected and processed by the publishing company, and therefore may be framed in ways the photographer may not have intended. Once embedded, semiotic associations are difficult to shift. Travel literature and photogra- phy, which both construct and carry meaning, might represent a reader’s first or most enduring introduction to a new culture or land. In lieu of direct experience, travel artefacts provide the reader with visual references and narrative frameworks that mediate otherwise unknown places and populations. These artefacts are therefore in a prime position to create, exacerbate or chal- lenge existing semiotic associations, and, by doing so, forge, strengthen or break down colonial discourses. Methodology Despite their ubiquity, there are few semiotic analyses based specifically on book covers, alt- hough the work of Genette is instructive (2009). This, and the work of theorists who have ana- lysed semiotic coding in other, text-adjacent visual mediums, will be utilised here. For instance, Parameswaran (2015) unpacks how animal images are used to represent India on magazine and non-fiction book covers, drawing out convincing arguments about race, racism and postcolo- nial history. Likewise, Oswald (2012) and Harrison (2002) apply visual semiotic methodologies to advertising artefacts. These texts provide a model for the following analysis. A framework, based on Parameswaran’s focus on specific imagery (tigers and elephants) and Hu, Zelenko, Pinxit and Buys’ (2019) practice of breaking down artefacts into visual criteria, is employed to categorise the book covers according to their main criterial aspects. As the background photograph and title are dominant features of the book covers, their content and signified meanings are given precedence. Book titles are analysed word-by-word, and as complete phrases, and the resonance of each word and phrase is examined against exi- sting academic discussions of possible signified meanings, with a particular emphasis on post- colonial critical discussion. Cover images are evaluated to establish what objects and subjects are visible, and how these objects and subjects are placed in the overall composition of the image and in relation to the viewer. These are disaggregated in line with Hammerich and Harrison’s semiotic categories of “icon”, “index” and “symbol” (2002). The icon category includes those images that resemble an existing conception of what is represented, e.g., a photograph. Icons sit in contrast to “index” images which bear no similarity to what is signified, but operate due to a recognised rela- tionship between sign and signified (Harrison 2003), e.g., the cover indexes the contents of a book, due to the established relationship between cover and text, and to symbols, which gain meaning from convention rather than visual similarity or an established relationship. This system of categorisation is useful but not mutually exclusive; a sign may simultaneously fulfil