Diversity & Body Language

Read pp. 407-421
Blog #5: "Seeing" #2 p. 419


Because photographer Nikki S. Lee positions people in her photographs in a very specific way, it shapes the perspective and attitude of each photograph by showing more emotion in connecting people to others in the picture.
In the first picture on page 407, The Ohio Project, Lee has what appears to be considered a “redneck” pictured beside an “Asian woman”. The woman is pictured sitting on the right side of the man, leaning onto him; towards him but also facing the photographer. Even though she is positioned sitting on the arm rest and seems to have a taller level in the picture, she is sitting to where she is behind him as if he is protecting her or that she might be a little “afraid” of him. While the man is focused on the ‘rifle’, the woman’s focus seems to be on the photographer (or elsewhere). Body language speaks more than words in all the photographs, I would say. In fact, according to Carmine Gallo, 55% of communication is visual (i.e. body language and eye contact. I first started drawing inferences from studying Lee’s images when I saw the first photograph of hers. The first photo I came upon seeing was The Ohio Project. The inferences I drew from this picture were that the man was probably a “redneck” due to the big Confederate flag hung up on the wall with “I ain’t coming down” stitched into it, the rifle he is holding, and the way he appears. I also thought that the woman in this picture was a little afraid of the man beside her because of her body language and they way she is positioned in the picture. I don’t think they are friends. The woman doesn’t seem to be wearing a wedding ring and same with the man. After flipping through and examining Lee’s pictures, I can see she has named them “projects”. My overall impression of Lee’s work is that she is very interested in taking pictures of many diverse people and groups. Lee seems to enjoy diversity.

By the end of this essay, GIRL, by Jamaica Kincaid, I can see a life full of routines (from the mother), disappointment (possibly), and unhappiness (more than likely). I see routines from all that the mother is saying:

“Wash the white clothes on Monday…wash the color clothes on Tuesday…”

It seems like the mother has a daily routine or at least knows when and how to do things/get things done when they need to be. I feel disappointment coming from the mother because of how worried she seems to be in trying to keep her daughter away from “sexuality”. The mother even goes far enough to “show” her how to make a medicine to get out of pregnancy, if it were to happen not at the “right” time.

“…on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming”

“…this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming”

“…this is how you behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming”

“…this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child”

The unhappiness is both coming from the girl and the mother. The best example I could find for this was:
“Always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?”

The mother interprets the question from the girl as a possibility that a baker could one day deny the girl to “touch” the bread. I see this as the mother thinking that the girl could possibly become a ‘slut’. Sexual denial, maybe as a metaphor? I feel like the girl thinks she is asking the mother a harmless question, but the mother takes it a different way. The mother is so worried/concerned about the girl’s sexuality that she thinks the girl is bent on becoming a slut. In this last part of the essay, Kincaid uses the word ‘touch’ as if it could be interpreted as a sexual thing.

I can see that this essay is written to where the speaker is more than likely a mother of a young girl (I got the feeling the girl was of around 12 years of age), where she, the mother, is talking to her daughter. The girl has not reached puberty yet or is close to. The mother and daughter invoked by the description live somewhere in the Caribbean (Barbados, St. Lucia, ETC.) due to the use of language. From some of the specific details of the essay (i.e. doukona and pepper pot), I can be certain that this takes place in Antigua and the Caribbean. I would describe the mother as a rather smart lady. She obviously knows how to take care of a household and herself. She cares about the girl to the point where she could be seen as brutally honest with her. She knows how to act around everyone and has a sense of social etiquette. There’s another side of the mother as well. I think she’s been through a lot of life’s experiences with men and relationships due to the “medicine” to pregnancy and all the advice given. To a point the mother seems bitter. Even though she’s trying to help the girl, I think she thinks that it might not do anything to ‘help’ the girl, and it’s frustrating to her. If this was a portrait, the mother would be the one portrayed. I can see this ending up with a chance that the daughter coming to resent her mother in the end when she gets older. Even though the mother is seen as trying to help the girl, it could also be seen as being too hard on a child.

"Writing" #2 - Page 65

For this blog, I am looking at: Tracey Baran, Mom Ironing, 1997 and a story by Tillie Olson entitled I Stand Here Ironing.

After reading this story by Tillie Olson I can see that she has used an object, an iron, to create a story around a woman and her daughter's relationship. The writer uses an iron by creating imagery and metaphors in this story about a woman talking about her daughter's upbringing and her part of excuses for her "failure".
In the photograph by Tracy Baran I can see a woman who is off center of the picture. The woman is ironing while standing. She looks older than forty-five because of her head full of gray hair and the way she is dressed in a "I don't care how I dress today" way. The woman does not look happy to me because she is not smiling and her lips look pressed together; she looks as though she might be thinking about things. There is a young lady leaning in what looks like a wooden rocker closer to the right of the picture. She is dressed in a plain black long-sleeve shirt with a choker necklace that has a pendent of some sort hanging from the middle. She also is wearing ripped jeans. She looks like she is biting her nails and is zoned out, maybe thinking of things as well as what could be her mother.

In Tillie Olson's story I have found two examples of using the iron to explain something far more grater than the object itself:
"I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron." (First sentence - Page 66)
"Only help her to know--help make it so there is cause for her to know--that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron." (Last sentence - Page 70)
For this story where Tillie Olson uses this ordinary activity to create something larger than this ordinary object to develop a story about her relationship with her daughter is pretty neat. In this story she is talking about her daughter's upbringing and how she has "failed" raising her because of all these circumstances and because she was a young mother trying to raise a child and all the excuses about money, ETC. (second to last paragraph explains it all)

In the photograph by Tracey Baran it shows a woman and young lady together in a room both not smiling, but thinking about something possibly. These two people are the main 'objects' of this photograph, though the large pile of laundry on top of the table to the very left of the photo is distracting. In a way I think the picture could tell the story TIllie Olson has written if you could relate to it. The young lady look comfortable in the rocker with a red cup held on the top of her thigh. She is slumped in the chair. The women lookes like she has alot of laundry to fold/iron and from examining the picture, the room looks messy. If you asked me if these two people talk often I would reply no due to the body language of them both. The young lady looks comfortable where as the woman in a way does not. In a way in the story, the mother herself looks as though she is "helpless before the iron".

Reading this story and looking at this picture has gotten me to think about my upbringing as well and how that has affected me to become who I am today.

WHEN YOU TAKE SOMEONES LIFE YOU FORFEIT YOUR OWN

Exercise - page 24-25

Looking at this photo: Joel Sternfeld, Warren Avenue at 23rd Street, Detroit, Michigan, October 1993

The impact of this photograph to its' viewers is to look at the picture and read the capital black bold letters that form each word to make this sentence in the middle of the page and think to yourself: what could have gone wrong? What happened here? Why take this photo?! From my observations and therefore after my inferences, I have made a claim that this picture is giving advice from a time of a horrific event where possibily life(s) were taken and having an impact on a people, street, or even community.

The structure of the main building is off to the right side showing a piece of white wall and part of a tree. It's green branches. The picture on the white wall. The initial inference I made was that this was probably a site of a tragic situation/event. If there wasn’t a picture made on the wall of this building with this religious figure wearing red and in front of an orange, blue, and pink background, it would be a totally different picture. Everything in this picture is significant to it. The point of view of its' taker is right there in the photograph. It’s usual to see a roadside memorial signifying a horrific event happening there in its’ place. But taking a picture of one? This photograph is speaking about a story. Looking and thinking about the photographer’s point of view, I have come to believe that this certain spot on this street has a great significance. The environment and building has emotion from one event.

Taking a first glance at this picture and examining it I see it's in front of a deserted building, where there's no one in the photo. The bottom windows of what seem to be a two story building are filled with posters and signs. The posters/signs are ones with pictures of religious figures (Jesus) and that of a raised fist; some with quotes such as "DO THE RIGHT THING" and "MOM". Another detail I noticed right away was the "SOLD" on the door. There is a picture located under the first floor windows of a colored Jesus. On the sidewalk in front of the pale green building near the road is a roadside memorial with flower pieces and crosses. There's a tree in the left side of the photograph. Under the tree's branches I see a picture in the back with a saying of a prison sentence. Another obvious observation for everyone are the black letters of a sentence saying "WHEN YOU TAKE SOMEONES LIFE YOU FORFEIT YOUR OWN" right above the first floor of the building with hand prints around the word “OWN”.

I have been looking/observing/examining this picture for a while now. When looking at it, I feel like I’m standing right there on the other side of the street seeing the picture. It feels sad, yet I feel as though the people effected by whatever happened here have learned something from the event, or maybe trying to tell others to learn from it.

Image of Homelessness

For my first blog, I'm making observations on a photograph by Mark Person entitled Image of Homelessness, which can be found in my ENG 101 book titled Seeing & Writing 3 by Donald and Christine McQuade.
The first thing you are sure to notice about this picture is the many cardboard JERZEES (American Active Wear) boxes fitted into each other. You can see the boxes are lying on a sidewalk bench in front of a black metal fence. The brown cardboard boxes are tied at the ends where each box is fitted into the other. The long looking bench seems to be made of wood and looks worn and old from the dents at the end. There's another cardboard box underneath the bench where you can make out a "handle with care". All around the bench I can see four parts of a brown cardboard box, with a tree to the side of the bench. If you look to the back of the photo you notice some part of an intersection with pedestrians walking on the sidewalk. There is a Burger King with bubbly yellow-orange letters just above the windows and door. Leaning on the Burger King is a bicycle. I can see exactly three cars at the intersection. Jumbles of signs are on the side of a brick building. A silver pole runs up from a corner of the intersection shown. Beside the silver pole is a silver fire hydrant. There are exactly four people I can see in this photo. There is a yellow box connected to the long silver pole at the intersection, the one that tells pedestrians when it’s safe to cross the street. If we look back at the many JERZEES boxes fitted together on the bench, we see a white pillow at the end of the ‘tunnel’. Inside the ‘tunnel’ I can also see something pink and something a sort of forest-green color (it looks waterproof).

To relate to this photograph I’m looking at, I have other photos that I think relate to it: