85

There is a particular category of images that are characterized by the fact that they associate a visual signifier with a signified whose content is associated with the idea of an occupation or craft. This can take the form of a very figurative representation of professional tools or attributes, or more symbolic forms, such as the doctor's caduceus. To analyze this way of representing occupations, this article proposes the notion of figurative idiom of occupational groups, created by analogy with William Sewell's “guild idiom” and Erving Goffman's "ritual idiom. It explores the structure and the modalities of figuration of this figurative idiom, and attempts to detect its uses, both when professionals or trademen put themselves in images and when they are put in images by others. The iconic productions thus constituted can serve to indicate the presence of professionals or trademen, to glorify them or to carry their claims, but they can also be used to ridicule them or to denounce them. They can also be read as a chronicle of the sometimes contemptuous, sometimes benevolent gaze cast on work, or as a profane form of knowledge and social classification by typification.