Blog Post #10: Historical Context

In order to better understand the relevance of the photograph of the three Ugandan boys I have chosen, it is very important to understand the historical and cultural contexts from which it is derived.

To fully understand the significance of the photo, you must understand the history of the location at which it was taken. This photo was taken in 2008 in Uganda. Uganda is a landlocked country in Eastern Africa bordered by Kenya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda. (Wikipedia) 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 and a 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. The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations including abduction, murder, mutilation, and the sexual enslavement of women. Kony and the LRA are possibly most known for abducting children and forcing them to fight in his army. “It is estimated that over 90% of the LRA’s troops were abducted as children” (Invisible Children). The LRA leaders believed that they young children would be easier to terrorize could easily be brainwashed and molded into trained fighters and killers, and that they could less easily escape. In search of safety and protection, approximately 25,000 children, between the ages of 3 and 17, known as night commuters, have been forced to travel up to 12 miles per night from their small vulnerable villages to larger more protected cities. The children sleep in masses at hospitals, empty churches, and bus parks where the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces offer some protection while they sleep.

In an attempt to protect the Ugandan people from the LRA and put an end to the night commuting, the Ugandan government forcibly evicted thousands from their homes and pushed them into overcrowded communities, now called 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.

In the photograph, we see three boys overlooking hundreds of homes. Understanding the history of the country they are in, the war that is raging around them, that their homes are part of a displacement camp with deplorable conditions, and that they most likely live in constant fear of abduction by a rebel group provides a whole new context from which to view the photo.

Works Cited

"History of the War." Invisible Children. Invisible Children, 2009. Web. 1 Oct.
2009. <http://www.invisiblechildren.com/about/history/>.

"Lord's Resistance Army." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army

"Uganda." Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda

Blog Post #9: Arrangement And Appeals

In the photograph of the three Ugandan boys I chose, the vectors of attention 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, and that is on the displacement camp. 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 context in which the photo was taken.

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 you might not know what a displacement camp is, by looking at the photo, you can see 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 our homes typically are. This would invoke in most people a sense of sympathy, as any person can understand how important shelter and home are. Thinking about living in such small and tight living conditions would make most people count their blessings and be thankful that they live in the home that they do and feel sorry for those who live in such squalor.

The appeals to logos found in this picture are in the very elements that make up the photo. The photo is in black and white, and because of that the only hues in this image are black, grey, and white. Despite the lack of color, there is a great deal of contrast present. There are extreme differences between the lights and darks in this picture. The dark skin of the boys is a stark contrast to the light and bright area of the displacement camp homes and they sky.

Blog Post #8: Photo Inferences

When searching for a picture to write about our first project I wanted to find one that I could connect with and a topic that I knew something about. After going through dozens of pictures I finally stumbled across this one when I wasn’t even really looking. This picture comes from the Invisible Children website. Invisible Children is an advocacy organization supporting and promoting change for the people of Africa, specifically those living in Uganda, Sudan, Darfur, and Rwanda.

This particular photograph was taken at a displacement camp in Uganda. It shows three boys looking over the displacement camp. The three boys could be brothers, or best friends. They are standing close together and seem to have some sort of connection, suggesting that they are not simply strangers at the same place at the same time. Though we cannot see their faces, we can gain a great deal of knowledge about what they are thinking or feeling by the way they are standing. They are somewhat slouched and their gazes are focused downward, not up and out as you might see with pride or excitement. But then again, they are looking over the homes that they, and people like them, have been forced into, not a childhood home, or tight-knit village, so there isn’t much I could imagine much they would have to be happy or excited about.

The boys in the photo probably live in the displacement camp they are looking over as area rebel groups and government agencies forced “more than 1.8 million people – or 80 percent of the population in northern Uganda – to flee their homes and instead live in squalid displacement camps in which an estimated 1,000 individuals die each week.” (Northern Uganda Crisis) They probably live very difficult lives. Aside from the miserable conditions that they have been forced to live in, they most likely live in fear of being recruited or kidnapped to become child soldiers for the LRA, (Lord’s Resistance Army) a rebel force in Uganda and Sudan lead by Joseph Kony, who often train young boys to become killing machines for their cause.

Aside from the fear that they could possibly at any time be taken from their family and forced to kill, the boys’ lives in the displacement camps, like the one they are looking over, is dismal and very difficult to say the very least. The homes are made of straw, sticks, dirt or cloth and are all very close together, causing conditions to be unsanitary and the spread of disease to be rapid. There are never enough resources. Even basic human needs, such as food and water, are scarce. The activities that occur in the displacement camps are ones that promote survival. There aren’t extra resources or space for other entertainment or fun. All of their energies are typically spent trying to get through to the next day. The boys have probably already seen and understand things far beyond their years and taken on great responsibility to help their family and community survive.

Blog Post #7: Photography Experience

I have always had an interest in photography. When I was five my family went a trip to Lake Okoboji, Iowa and my mom gave me my own disposable camera. I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world and I came back with some very interesting pictures. Now, keep in mind that I was only five, so most of the pictures were of ducks, squirrels, birds, trees, the lake, and several of our hotel room. But I also took some that were actually worthwhile. One evening my dad decided that he was going to try to fish, a bad decision since my father has no innate fishing skills what so ever. So I sat with my camera on the dock with him for hour after fish-less hour. Finally he thought that he caught something and spent the better part of five minutes trying to reel it in. When he finally brought his catch to the surface, it wasn’t fish at all… it was seaweed. I had wanted to take a picture of the “fish” my dad caught, so as soon as the hook surfaced I snapped a picture. The result was a profile shot of my father’s incredibly shocked face and a fishing pole hooked onto a whole lot of seaweed. It perfectly captured the moment, and anyone looking at the picture could clearly understand what had happened. This remains one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken.

Since that time, I have had many more disposable cameras, and my love of photography has continued to grow. I don’t claim to be the best photographer, but I honestly believe that part of my problem may be that I have never had the right tools.

I have had digital cameras, but the quality hasn’t been anywhere near professional and they have all basically been a flash or no flash, line it up, point and shoot kind of situation. I did take a photography class in high school and learned a little about the basics of photography and got to use the school’s professional cameras. So that helped to give me some confidence and knowledge. But despite my lack of the tools to take great pictures, I feel that I am ableto compensate by being able to capture a moment, as well finding good subjects and subject matter. Two of my best photography experiences were trips that I took. One was to Washington D.C. my senior year of high school, and the other was to London my sophomore year. Aside from having amazing subject matter to shoot, I feel like I was able to take some more artistic shots as well as the more “touristy” ones that you take just to remember what places looked like and that have you and your friends in them to prove you were actually there, and you were there together.

I have always loved looking at and taking pictures. Whether or not I am actually any good at evaluating photography or shooting it is still yet to be determined! The two images posted here are pictures that I took during my trip to London. The first is of London's Tower Bridge, and the second is of Stonehenge.

Blog Post #5: Pathos And Context Analysis

In the video for their song, “Not Ready To Make Nice," the Dixie Chicks create a viewing experience with many rhetorical appeals. While both ethos and logos are used in the video and are very important in their own right, it is the use of pathos that really sets this video apart.

The video itself is an effort to evoke a feeling of compassion for the Dixie Chicks. After their London concert in which lead singer Natalie Maines said that she was “ashamed” to be from the same state as then President George W. Bush, there was a great backlash. Radio stations began boycotting their music, stores pulled their albums from the shelves, and many fans disassociated themselves. This video was created to appeal to their audiences’ emotions and elicit, or attempt to elicit, a feeling of sympathy. Their use of pathos and cry for empathy is very evident even in the song’s lyrics: “And how in the world can the words that I said/ Send somebody so over the edge/ That they’d write me a letter/ Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing/ Or my life will be over.” This is not only an attempt go obtain a sympathetic response where the listener might feel bad for the ridicule endured by the band, but to force the listener to think about what they would feel like if someone told you to “shut up and sing” or they would kill you.

The use of pathos to elicit an emotional response in this video is also evident in the use of common institutions we all must deal with every day and the often-detrimental effects they have on individuals and society. The used of the schoolroom setting is a prime example of this. In most people this would evoke a negative emotion about a childhood school experience in which they were made to feel a fool for stating their opinion or when they were unjustly punished.

There are many instances both in lyric and aesthetic in the Dixie Chicks song “Not Ready To Make Nice,” that are meant to elicit a strong emotional response from the audience. From the lyric of the song to the scenes depicted in the video, there is no doubt that pathos is hard at work here.