Any critical study of visual communication must necessarily address the question of how meaning is communicated through visual images. Meaning is not found intricately woven into the fabric of the text to be unearthed by a trained scholar, nor is the meaning of a text to be defined solely in individual psyches. The ability of a visual text to communicate meaning involves an intricate interplay between the codes and messages encoded into the text at the time of its production and the cultural experience and subjectivity the spectator brings to the viewing of that image. The production of visual texts takes place within dominant ideological structures. Texts therefore, have the ability to reflect or reproduce dominant cultural discourses about such things as gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, education and sexual preference. Certainly visual images can be openly resistance to dominant discourses in a culture, serving a counter-hegemonic function, however these images are nonetheless produced within a dominant ideology and it is the relation of that dominant ideology to the form of resistance in a visual image that is of particular importance to the scholar of visual communication.The central concern of this essay is the meaning communicated by print advertising images in general, and a current trend in highly stylized fashion and cologne advertising in particular. These ads are of significant interest because they have the ability to be read simultaneously as both progressive and traditional representations of sexuality. These ads represent an attempt on the part of advertisers to push the boundaries of sexual representation into the realm of high culture aesthetics, or &dquo;artistic photography.&dquo; This new direction demands different tools for critical analysis than have been utilized to study the transparent persuasive tactics of utility ads. Far from attempting to associate a slogan, celebrity or lifestyle with a particular product, these ads capitalize on ambiguity. What is meant by &dquo;ambiguous&dquo; will be explored more fully later on. For now, ambiguity signifies two aspects of these particular ads: first, the scarcity or absence of linguistic text obscures the connection between the image and the product being advertised. Second, the relation of the image created in the photograph and the product type are arbitrary. Generally the product is not foregrounded and is at other times completely absent. This analysis of advertising texts in general and the above mentioned ads specifically will operate at two conceptual levels. First, it is central to the argument that the analysis of this type of advertisement involves an understanding of &dquo;ways of seeing&dquo; and an understanding of &dquo;ways of looking.&dquo; Ways of seeing

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