WP1 rough draft

My photo was taken in the year 1940 by Marion Wolcott. It depicts two boys fishing in a bayou in Shriever, Louisiana. When looked through a rhetorical lens, one can truly break down all the elements in the photograph. By using a Historical context, one will see the argument of peace, freedom, and hope in hard times. Once you apply the rhetorical techniques such as, cropping, vectors of attention, the photos arrangement and logos, and last but not least ethos, it will be clear the author’s overall theme of peace, hope, and freedom in a tough time historically.

The vectors of attention are depicted by Compose Design Advocate as a way to direct your attention to a certain spot by the way the people-or objects-are arranged in the photograph. In this particular photograph the two boys have their attention on the bayou. This arrangement directs the viewer’s attention to that of the bayou. This example of logos in the photograph inspires ethos and pathos in the viewer. The boys looking at the bayou brings up a mysterious even scary feeling to the bayou. Like the boys are not supposed to venture out into the bayou the arrangement of the bayou makes it almost overwhelming in this situation.

When you look at this picture with a historical context, the statement of hope, freedom, and peace become extremely apparent in this situation. During this time and age, Louisiana and the rest of the world was trying to cope with World War II. Many people left Louisiana to pursue jobs that were abundant in many other areas. Many Americans where fighting overseas in the Second World War. When you look at the photograph, the lighting in the picture inspires the feeling of hope. You look at where the lighting is most abundant, and it is over the children.

It is almost like they are being shown upon from a higher power. This inspires that feeling of hope, and peace. Given the darkness and unknown of the bayou it almost like the darkness and chaos that is going on during the war. The boys are representing the hope that America has back home. If you also look at the historical context of the picture, you will notice the boys are not necessarily dressed to impress.

This tells you a little bit about the boy’s financial situation at the time. During that time, overalls and sun hats would have been a very popular dress for young boys. This reminds of the story of Huckleberry Fin because of this style of dress. They are sitting on a tire for some sort of car, which makes me question if they can afford a nice chair to sit on at the bayou. The boys’ close do not look that well off and this brings up a contradictory point that this photograph can make. Instead of the Bayou being evil and something that boys should stay away from, it could be interpreted as the exact opposite. One could see this bayou being the vast unknown that the boys need to venture into. It might be scary and vast, but to change their current fortune, they need to take some chances and venture off into the unknown. There is also that element of the old tree that looks almost dead. This element can represent something that the boys are trying to run away from. They are looking forward into the unknown so that they can escape that which is behind them.

The style of this photograph brings up a sense of peace and tranquility emotionally. If you look at the picture overall and do some cropping you will see that there is nothing in the photograph that will make one believe anything bad is going to happen in the photograph. The process of cropping is to take each of the elements in the photograph and look at them individually. When I do this I notice the peace and the tranquility of every element. First of all take the boys who are sitting near the edge of the bayou. They both have their back turned and one is sitting down. The other has his hands on the fishing pole just relaxing and fishing. Looking at the boy’s clothes and posture there doesn’t seem to be any wind or negative weather that would ruin their fun.

Another element would have to be the bayou. When I crop the bayou and take under closer examination, I notice how calm it is. It actually looks like that of glass and barely has a ripple. The other element, the tree, this is tree is actually contradictory to my point of peace. It looks old and almost dead. It acts as almost an incentive to focus on the peace that is going on everywhere around them.

The brightness and hue of the photograph are other key elements of the photograph that solidifies my main theme. First of the all the brightness of the photograph really adds to the logos and the visual higharcy. Because of the light being in the position that it was in, it drew my attention to the two boys first as opposed to anything else. This also reiterates my statement of the boys looking like they are being shown upon. If you look at the photograph, everywhere is pretty much in the shadows except for the two boys. This brings me back to my point of peace in the war time. The light also plays into that mystery surrounding the bayou.

They bayou itself is in some extreme shadows. This brings me back to my point that it is the unknown that the boys must have to face some day. The brightness also plays a big part with the hue and the peacefulness of the photograph. If you look at the colors of the boys clothes, they are very vivid and bright. The sunhats that they are wearing really stand out in the light that is shone from the sun. If you also look up at the tree, there is also a lot of light and an abundance of color with the leaves in the tree. This adds to that calming effect that I get when I look at the video. It is almost like they want you to forget about what is going on here historically and to focus on more of a simpler time.

In the end it is clear that this photograph embodies the purpose of peace, hope, and freedom during a tough time. It uses the unique arrangement in inspire a great sense of pathos. It also uses many different rhetoric terms to solidly its argument and states its purpose. It usage of brightness and hue also play a huge part in the overall ethos and logos of the photograph. Its key elements solidify its argument, and it is argument of peace, hope, and freedom during a tough time in history is stated flawlessly.