This photo was taken from The New York Times images on the web. I believe The New York Times is usually seen as a left winged, liberal paper. This image of Scott Olsen was taken at the end of October during the Occupy protests in Oakland, CA. The caption of the image reads, Protesters assisted a man who was hit by a tear-gas canister near Oakland’s City Hall on Tuesday night. This caption does not give the viewer any information about who this "man" is or really any other details necessary to understand what is going on.
If I supported the protests and what these people were doing, this image may make me very angry and upset with the results. The fact that violence and force were being used against these protesters would seem very wrong and unnecessary. I would be angry at the police and feel that it was their wrongdoing to injure this innocent man.
If I did not support these protests or what was happening in Oakland and around the world, this image may make me feel like this man was acting violent himself, or had done something wrong in order to have this kind of thing happen to him. I may make more assumptions and not blame the police for the force they used against these protesters.Instead, I would feel that the police were simply doing their job and this was just an awful mistake that this man was injured.
Regardless of whether I supported the protesting or not, I find myself wanting to know more. This image is not really telling me a story and is simply just leaving me with more questions. The caption is pretty much useless and does not even tell me this man's name, as if the name is not of importance. I find myself wanting to know the situation and the how's and why's. It is important to have photos taken of these events, but that does not mean that the viewer can simply look at these photos and understand what is going on. The viewer can only make assumptions and use their own opinions to interpret what is going on.
Do you think images are meant for you to explore your ideas and thoughts of what happened doing this particular time and your to use your sense of emotions or do you think the context should give more clues to what the images should tell us?
ReplyDeleteHow do you think, you being a specific one to this picture, how can we find the "truth" of a picture or story for that matter if all we are given is what the media or photographers want us to see?
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think the caption is vague? Do you think that means that the New York Times doesn't want the audience to know the whole story?
ReplyDelete