The anthropological function of pictures lies in conveying initial context building, i.e., the genesis of the capacity to focus on situations that are not currently present. In order to support that thesis, we first recapitulate the concept of communication with two ways of presentation enclosed therein which are central to language competence and picture competence. Thereby a path opens up to define perceptoid media in more detail, through which a transition to initial context building can be suggested. However, it becomes clear, too, that the ability to present oneself as a picture user has to be stabilized by further acts of communication. In the end, they also lead to the option of con-text building without a fallback on perceptoid media that we generally call visual imagination.

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