Metaphor AND Allegory.

Metaphor:
A figure of speech - when a term is transformed into something that it doesn't actually mean.
A comparison showing two things that are not alike, but in a similar way.
'It is' rather than 'like' or 'as' (which would be a simile)

Allegory: 
A story with a meaning other than a literal one.
An extended metaphor.
A symbolic narrative.

I had previously learnt about metaphor's but the word allegory was new to me..
Here are the examples we looked at when using these terms to analyse:

Sarah Lucas - Self-portrait with Fried Eggs 1996

• At first glance she looks like a man, with a macho pose with legs spread wide apart.  Wearing old, tatty and androgynous clothing.
• The worn arm chair is also one which you would expect an elderly male to own and heavily overuse.
• I didn't realise that the subject was actually a women until somebody in the session said.
  I then noticed that she was just flat chested and the two fried eggs connoted her breasts.
• The makeshift black-and-white floor shows that everything is not as simple as it first seems.  This could also be a metaphor for the kitchen (making reference to the stereotype that women should be in the kitchen).
• The camera view (panning down) is also very significant and connotes vulnerability.
• Cigarettes by her feet, something which is also more of a manly thing, but also shows a certain life choice which she has chosen. 

Sarah Lucas - Au Naturel 1944, Mattress, water bucket,
melons, oranges and cucumber

• The objects in this photograph represent the reproductive organs of a male and female.
• (Photographers view) This is an allegory for old married life - they are settled into it, a hollow shell, no passion left only now..a well practised relationship.
• Suggesting that the husband no longer cares about how she looks, her breasts (melons) blend into the mattress (not visible to him!)  
• The room is empty, is this a subtle explanation/vision of the marriage?
• The decayed mattress = a decayed relationship?
• There are also no children in the shot, is it all about sex or is there substance and love?

The first image that I spoke about is a metaphorical piece as it is trying to suggest something which is opposite - portraying her as another sex with all the masculine connotations and stereotypes we already have as viewers.  Whereas the second photograph is allegorical and uses an extended narrative, suggesting more than what our eyes first see.