Once you are satisfied with your contributions to the adversarial discussion of “The Falling Man,” you may start on your next assignment: to find an iconic photograph that you wish to discuss through the four lenses provided here:
- The Grammar of Seeing
- The Ethics of Seeing
- The Role of the Photographer
- The Photo’s Message
Search through the links below, allowing yourself to see each image as iconic — as representative of larger ideas and even eras, as emblematic of moments in time, as transformative in some important way. Keep Sontag’s ideas in your mind, but treat this as an opportunity to see what photos have changed the world. The sites I’ve given you detail the context of each photo, as well. Which ones would you like to discuss in class? Make a note of them in your compendium, being sure you can direct us to it, when we are back in class.
You can leave your suggestions in the comments, as well.
Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl”
- “The falling man” got me thinking about this photo I read about several years ago in National Geographic. I remember reading that McCurry took the picture of the 11/12 year old girl without knowing her name, only getting her permission. The only thing he had to trace her identity was that her family had been killed in the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan and she was forced to feel to a refugee camp in Pakitsan.
I know we debated the importance of identifying the subject of the photo (as a person) and I remember there was a search for the mysterious girl for years after. While “the falling man” captured a casualty of an American National Tragedy, the “Afghan Girl” captures another (granted, still living) victim of the horrors of humanity – yet, it is somehow different.
What makes it okay to search for the identity of a unnamed person in a photograph? Should we always pursue the identity and permission to use a person’s image, or are we better off letting one nameless face speak for a large group of people. What is the importance of the backstory of the person when the photo only captures the moment?
These are the questions that haunt me…
sorta.
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html
Lynching 1930.
This photograph was probably the most haunting photograph in the bunch. Just looking at the picture, you would think that the main focus point of it would be the men hanging from the tree…I was not immediately drawn to that. I was drawn to the faces of the white people surrounding the base of the hanging. It doesn’t even seem like the people in the picture are focused mainly on the people hanging. It is apparent that it is normal to them and that is what is most disturbing to me. The man in the center of the photo pointing up at the black men I think symbolizes the arrogance of the average white American at that time. They were proud of it. They did not think that it was as bad as we do today. The two men off to the right of the photo are standing there smiling. This bothers me because they are standing in the presence of men hanging at their death and they do not seem to be phased the slightest bit. Another bothersome point to me is the description of the picture. It says that people would often use images like this as post cards. I do not understand how this could be. There is nothing welcoming or reassuring about seeing a man hanging from a tree.
Erin, the most haunting thing about that photograph, and the general idea of lynching, is that even today, people still believe that lynchings are justified. Sure, there are a lot of Civil Rights acts and laws that were passed that severely limited such activities, but they didn’t eliminate them. It’s just a shame that some people will never think of everyone as equal.
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm04.html
Birmingham 1963
When I first saw this photograph, I was immediately drawn to the man on the far right. It seems almost as if he purposely intercepted the water hose’s attack to (somewhat) protect the other two victims. Collectively, the victims appear helpless, especially the “protector” of the group, who has his hands up against the building.
Personally, I feel that there is nothing too controversial about this photograph in terms of ethics. Is this a terrible act of humanity? Absolutely. But it frankly just doesn’t dive too much into human suffering in order to be justified ethically challenging; especially when it’s compared to some of the other events depicted in photographs like starvation and death.
If anything, the troubling thing to me about this photo is the role of the photgrapher. It almost appears as if he saw this terrible event happening, and instead of trying to stop it, he whipped out his camara, and took a photograph, and then went on with his life. He almost appears to be mocking the victims by taking this photo. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if he took a more direct role in such terrible and racist acts, like the hosing shown here.
However, this was a significant time in American history, the Civil Rights movement that is, and it was events like this that gave motivation to people like Martin Luther King Jr. to fight against the racist acts. If things, such as this hosing, were never photographed, then it’s quite possible that Civil Rights acts and laws would have never passed in Congress. So who knows, maybe the photgrapher was just trying to make these atrocities known to the public, especially to Americans living in the North.