Upon first glace, this photo of three Ugandan children might simply appear to be a simple snapshot of young boys looking at their village in Africa. And indeed this is the case. However, this photo, and many others like it, force us to look beyond what we see in the first glance and begin to understand that the photo was taken purposefully to illustrate an argument about another, distinctly different, way of life, one in which contemporary American audiences may be find incomprehensible. The photographer is using the photo as a catalyst that allows the audience to experience first hand the struggles of the people portrayed in the photo. The key elements in this photo work together to illustrate the significance of the historical and social context, describe the relevance of ethos, pathos, and logos as rhetorical appeals, as well as demonstrate the importance of vectors of attention and their relation to the argument made by the photo.
To begin to unravel the photo’s argument, it is imperative to first become acquainted with the historical anand social importance
from which it is derived. The photo was taken in early 2008 inUganda. Uganda is a landlocked country in Eastern Africa bordered by Kenya, Sudan, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda. (Wikipedia, Uganda) For the last 23 years Uganda has entrenched in a brutal civil war between the Government of Uganda, currently headed by President Yoweri Museveni, and The Lord’s Resistance Army. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel guerrilla army formed in 1987 by Joseph Kony, who is a self-proclaimed “spokesperson” of God anda spirit medium. The LRA, recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, adheres to a blend of Christianity, Mysticism, witchcraft, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments. “It is estimated that over 90% of the LRA's troops were abducted as children," (Invisible Children). In an attempt to protect people from the LRA the Ugandan government forcibly evicted thousands from their homes and pushed them into overcrowded communities that have come to be known as displacement camps. Now, over a decade later, over a million people still live in displacement camps and along with the ever-present threat from the LRA “struggle to survive among the effects of abject poverty, rampant disease, and near-certain starvation” (Invisible Children). The displacement camps have offered few opportunities for cash income, almost no credit available, and very few of the people receive support from relatives living outside the camps. The main means of support for the camps is international humanitarian aid, which is never enough.
This knowledge about the conditions under which the people of Uganda must live their daily lives is something foreign and incomprehensible to most American citizens. It is true that over “37 million Americans live below the official poverty line and millions more struggle to get by every month,” (AmericanProgress.org) but to be evicted from your home, herded and held in a community with no opportunity for income, and living in constant fear for your life is a way of life that few Americans, and other audiences of this photograph are able assimilate with.
But it is not only this knowledge of world events that lends itself to help the audience understand the photo’s argument. The arrangement and vectors of attention play a large role in providing insight into the argument as well. According toCompose, Design, Advocate, vectors of attention are, “lines of direction that our eyes follow,” (CDA, 350). The vectors of attention found in the photograph are focused toward the displacement camp. The subjects are centered in the middle of the photograph, so they are certainly the first things that you notice when looking at the picture as they are the largest and take up the most space. But then, your attention turns to what they are looking at, or what their attention is directed on. It seems that the vectors of attention are such that your attention is drawn to the center of the photo, and then encourage you to work slowly outward. The way that the boys are standing also, with the tallest in the center and the shorter boys on each side, also directs your initial attention to the center of the photo. The way that they boys are arranged also lends an appeal to ethos. The decision to arrange the subjects the way that they did lends credibility to the photographer. Their arrangement and the vectors of attention are very effective at directing our attention to all of the various elements present in the picture, and making it obvious how they relate to each other and why they are important to our understanding of the argument the photo is attempting to make.
The arrangement of the subjects and vectors of attention are also an appeal to pathos and logos as well. There are many strong appeals to pathos in this photo, most of which are created by the vectors of attention and arrangement. By having the three boys centered in the photo and standing right next to each other, not only does it draw your attention to them right away, it eludes that they might be friends or brothers and evokes in the viewer a sense of compassion and empathy, as most of us can think of the loving feelings that we have for our own friends. There is also an appeal to pathos through the vectors of attention. While our initial attention is drawn to the center and the boys, it is where they are looking and what they are looking at that is really applicable to pathos. The displacement camp is where the attention of the photo is directed. Even though an audience member might not know what a displacement camp is, by looking at the photo, it is evident by the sheer number of homes, how close together all of the homes are, how small they are, and how they are all constructed of straw and earth, rather than timber an steel as most modern homes typically are that is a place that most people would not like to live. This would invoke in most people a sense of sympathy, as any person can understand how important shelter and home are.
It is this appeal to pathos that greatly shapes the photo’s argument. While the historical context is very important to understanding the relevance of the photo, and the vectors of attention and arrangement might lend support, it is the appeal to pathos that truly shapes the argument the photo is attempting to make. As mentioned before, there are very few who can directly relate to the struggles facing the pictured Ugandan boys. And that is precisely the argument that the photo is trying to make, that there exist other ways of life that contemporary American audiences my find unfathomable and incomprehensible. While the photo makes an argument that there are ways of life that a majority of United States citizens may be unable to identify with, it also attempts to illustrate to the audience the struggles of the young boys and allow them to begin to gain both empathy and sympathy for the boys and their way of life.
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