First I collected visual metaphors in general, using books and an internet search.
I've listed a few of my favourites below.
Frida Kahlo's work is rife with metaphor, for example in 'Autoretrato con mono' http://juancarlosboverimuseos.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/frida-kahlo-autorretrato-con-mono-museos-y-pintruras-juan-carlos-boveri.jpg she painted herself being embraced by a monkey, which in Mexican culture is a symbol of lust and the lord of the dance. Due to her physical disabilities she couldn't dance and she kept monkeys as pets and substitutes for the children she couldn't have.
In 'El pequeño ciervo' https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/imagesq=tbn:ANd9GcRLEmw3RJCqVj5wH15QmRxi8Np7NO7zmDL4wT2tcPhmGkpgNtBfVQ
she depicts herself as a wounded dear, again symbolising her injured body and in
'Lo que me dio el agua' http://www.fridakahlofans.com/c0270.html she combines images from her previous works, floating them in her bathwater to tell the story of her life.
Art Spiegelman (as I've said in a previous post) uses visual metaphor to stunning effect in Maus https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXou3u5Z7kFJzYJORAStSk0xZ9makKf0oSWBZxoGieKxV_6E3axQ depicting the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, the Polish as pigs, the French as frogs and the English as fish.
I also love these images by Iri5 who has created portraits of musicians using cassette tapes as her 'Ghost in the machine' project http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3441/3398016972_b84afb86aa_o.jpg
I chose censorship of the press from the list of subjects and made a visual list of rough sketches:
I showed the sketches to a friend who thought they illustrated censorship of the internet, so that was pretty close. If I were to develop these further I'd choose to start with the 'news as a puppet show' theme.
I then did an internet image search of censorship of the press to see how other people had illustrated it. Here are my favourites:
I really like the humour and simplicity of this image of a man being spied upon by the military while he's surfing the net.
http://www.noomizo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/censorship1.jpg
I found this deceptively simple image of a man being prevented from seeing or speaking to be very powerful and I like the 'woodcut' style.
http://www.graphic-design.com/Gallery/luba_lukova/posters_1_t.gif
This image of a man with his fingers nailed to his flute by Luba Lukova depicts censorship in general and is wonderfully evocative of the pain caused by suppression of expression.
Her beautiful graphic designs are quite ‘crude’ and woodcut-ish and are coloured very simply and, perhaps because of that, they convey her social comments in an incredibly powerful and direct way.
http://www.graphic-design.com/Gallery/luba_lukova/index.html
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