At the Time of the Louisville Flood Essay

     “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” was written by James Agee and Walker Evans. The story is about three white families of tenant farmers in rural Alabama. The photographs in the beginning have no captions or quotations. They are just images of three tenant farming families, their houses, and possessions. “The photographs are not illustrative. They, and the text, are coequal, mutually independent, and fully collaborative.” (87) The story and the photographs contain relationships between them; in the essay I am going to inform you about the interpretations of the relationships between the readings of James Agee and some of the pictures by Walker Evans.

It is said that “The true content of a photograph is invisible, for it derives from a play not with form but with time”. This makes me think that the real content of a picture, which is what the photographer tried to express, is not evident to perceive unless an explanatory text is provided. In fact, I believe that our perceptions of pictures changes over time as the historical context do. In addition, our opinions are never fixed as they are influenced by our environment. Therefore, when looking at a particular picture at a given time, it is certain that our perception of it will be different in the future based on what happen between the first time and second time we saw it.

To begin with, Lange helped perceive the poor living conditions of the 1900’s through her photo of the migrant mother and three children. For instance, Lange with her photo of the migrant mother helped raise awareness, for the federal government gave the pea pickers camp, where the migrant mother had been distinguished, “twenty thousand pounds of food”. (Starr 48) The photo of the unfortunate pea pickers helped people realize how hopeless they really were. This creating a willingness to help. Showing Lange's photography ability to create empathy through a simple photo. In addition, the mother was so desperate for help that when the picture was taking place, “there she sat in the lean-to-tent” motionless. (Starr 47) The migrant mother was so

In Maya Angelou's’ excerpt, she uses descriptive imagery to shed light on what it was like to be alive in the black community at the time of this special event. Using imagery can display the audible and visual settings of a story. This allows a better understanding for the audience. Moreover, making the audience feel as if they are a part of the story. Angelou writes,“The last inch of space was filled, yet people continued to wedge themselves along the walls of the Store. Uncle Willie had turned the radio up to its last notch so that youngsters on the porch wouldn't miss a word.”

The United States experienced both the Great Depression and harsh weather conditions during the 1930’s causing Americans to suffer through extreme hardship and impoverishment. Many of the migrant farmers were bankrupt, destitute, and struggled to survive. Photographer and photojournalist, Dorothea Lange, captured the dangerous conditions migrant workers and their families endured through her photograph, Migrant Mother. The photograph not only displays a woman and children suffering, but also reveals the determination and willpower the woman had to provide for her family.

In the article, “Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, and the Culture of the Great Depression” by James C. Curtis, we understand what it takes to get the perfect photo to represent a message. Dorothea Lange became very popular during her time and is known especially for her photo, Migrant Mother, which documents life during the Great Depression. James C. Curtis does a good job explaining the artistic decisions to this most famous shot and how many different steps Lange took in order to really create a powerful message depicting life in poverty.

Photographs were taken to show what was going on during the civil rights movement. However, they didn’t show the full story all the time. In the book Little Rock Girl 1957,

The central photographs of the movement were the images of struggle and resistance that were widely published by the media and found their way into the homes of both black and white America. Images of violence against African Americans were integral in exposing the truth of racism to a nation of ambivalence, unknowing, and utter denial. These are the images that most associate with the movement and were a crucial element in the visual culture of the time. However, civil rights leaders and activist understood that these images could not work alone. It was important to present images that would alter the nation’s attitudes towards race, images that were radically different than photographs of protests and violence.

This photo called attention to the issues in civil equality that are still prevalent today, it was the start of a very long fight for equality.

Finally, the depiction of figure is perhaps the most interesting and intellectually challenging element in this piece. The figure, while emotionally withdrawn from the viewer, is physically imposing. She is looking down and away from the viewer, as if the isn’t aware that she is being watched. Her mask-like facial features also do little in the way of conveying emotion. Her body, however, is quite different. The dark thick lines shaping her muscles and limbs, the detail in the curls of her hair, the placement of her fingers, and her exposed breast all demand the attention of the viewers’ eye. The bold lines that define her legs, waist, and hip, make her seem intrusively part of our space. The awkward placement of her

This picture was chosen for its background. The background adds detail so that the onlooker can create an idea of who this person might be. While the subject is still the main focus of the portrait the background is just as important as the subject because it suggests a culture that the viewer can make inferences about.

“The Year of the Flood” is an epic, sprawling novel that moves back and forth between past, present and future effortlessly. Though it is told from Ren and Toby’s point of view, the novel is really about the story of three women (Ren, Toby, and Amanda) and their will to survive in a cruel and harsh world. It is a story of hope, despite all odds and a story of the power of love.

"Close all shutters and doors until no light enters the camera except through the lens, and opposite hold a piece of paper, which you move forward and backward until the scene appears in the sharpest detail. There on the paper you will see the whole view as it really is, with its distances, its colours and shadows and motion, the clouds, the water twinkling, the birds flying. By holding the paper steady you can trace the whole perspective with a pen, shade it and delicately colour it from nature."

4. What aspects of these images by Life photographer Charles Moore transformed American sensibilities regarding civil rights? How did people like Birmingham police chief Bull Connor and organizations like the Ku Klux Klan participate in changing the hearts and minds of many American’s, if not the right to sit together on a bus?

The novel The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood takes the Biblical origin story of man and creates a Garden of Eden for the end of the world. The novel’s allusion to Genesis adds to the message that the hardships befalling humanity and the destruction of the earth are due to man’s sinful nature just as Adam and Eve’s punishments and expulsion from paradise were a direct result of their sin. Adam and Eve, the first to live immorally on earth, are now recreated into a group of people that will witness the world’s end in a reflection of its beginning. The new Garden of Eden is created and lost in a time when new intelligence is created by man and evil fights for the hold of man once more. However, just as the expulsion from the original Garden led to the beginning of the world known today, the expulsion from the second Garden leads to the creation of a new world where humanity is largely absent.