I feel this project was an investigative and educational experience that helped amplify my analysis of photography. Before this project I merely just looked at a photograph and decided whether I liked it or not. Now by using terms from the book, I can express what aspects of the photo help to portray certain arguments. It was challenging to come up with an argument for my photo. My first thesis was that “the blue-collar laborers during World War II were dealing with contrasting feelings: the somber sadness of the tragedy of war and the uplifting spirit of the economy due to the increased job availability and productivity”. Although this could be an argument, it was a little too contradictory and symbolic. I needed to analyze the actual photo more.
My second thesis was “war isolates humans from each other, taking away their individuality, and putting an emphasis on using all possible resources to attain victory”.
This was a better thesis, still it wasn’t clear enough. I didn’t address the isolation of humanity in my essay and therefore took it out for the final draft. My final thesis was “war unites people of a nation and puts an emphasis on using all possible resources to attain victory”. I feel this encompasses the photo perfectly and is supported by the technical elements. One change I made in the final draft was adding that the technical elements caused an appeal to logos and pathos.
In the first draft I had my technical elements in the following order: coloration, vectors of attention, and framing. After both a peer and instructor review, I realized that framing was my strongest paragraph and moved it to the front. I also moved coloration to the back because I felt it was least significant. Also, in my first draft I only had four multimedia elements and therefore had to add one more picture for the second draft.
For my final draft, I kept framing first but moved coloration up to second because I felt it was a good transition into the vectors of attention. The greatest vector of attention in this photo is the locomotive because of the contrasting hues. In my first two drafts my video was too big and covered the classmate sidebar. I couldn’t figure out how to get the dimensions right so I just found a different YouTube video of the same government PSA.
I tried to cut down on the unneeded historical context in this last draft and subsequently cut out “One interesting insight that an observer at this sight had was that the soldiers didn’t care where they were or where they were going. They were just happy to be traveling around the country” because it wasn’t relevant to be argument and didn’t greatly contribute to the background knowledge necessary for analyzing this photograph.
One other critical change I made in the final draft was adding the definitions of ethos, pathos, and logos to help the reader understand my technical elements. I made some major changes to my essay between drafts and it significantly helped to create a more complete and thorough rhetorical analysis of my photograph.
Rough Draft 1
Rough Draft 2
Statement of Purpose
Final Draft:
Wars propose a complicated situation for every country involved because the whole dynamic of the economy must change, not to mention the emotional tribulations. The United States experienced these challenges during World War II. Although initially not trying to get involved in the conflict, the US retaliated after the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. Sacrifices, both voluntary and involuntary, were made by citizens of the US to help the country prevail in battle. During 1943 the US government issued shoe rationing (three pairs of leather shoes per year), meat rationing (28oz per week), and standstill wages and prices to streamline the economy (A WW2 Timeline). With all the country’s resources all going to the war and people dying, the future looked bleak.
During this period, all aspects of the nation were geared toward helping progress in the war. Factories were commissioned to create clothes, food and weapons for the soldiers. Transportation of these goods was mainly through the railroad system. One station involved in this endeavor, Ogden Union Station, played a major role in transporting military goods along with regular passengers and cargo. Special “troop trains” would ferry around the soldiers from town to town. The video above is a government statement from 1943 concerning troop trains and what they are used for. At one point during the war, a train rolled through Ogden Union Station every five minutes (How Trains Helped Win a War).
The photograph, Santa Fe R.R. freight train about to leave for the West Coast from Corwith yard, Chicago, Ill, is a prime example of how important the railroad business was during this time period. It was taken by Jack Delano, an American documentary photographer, in 1943 as part of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection. The goal of this collection of photographs was to capture American life during the heart of World War II. This specific photograph exemplifies the argument that war unites people of a nation and puts an emphasis on using all possible resources to attain victory. This is evidenced through technical elements such as framing, coloration, and vectors of attention via appeals to logos and pathos.
The framing of an image gives it the ability to focus on specific elements within the photo. In the case of this particular photo, such framing is used to accent the importance of the success of the train’s journey. The photo is taken at an angle to show both the longevity of the train and also a short stretch of track that represents the train’s future journey. It gives a sort of “before and after” snapshot of the journey. Although this is a military train that carries mostly cargo, one would expect at least a few passengers to be present. However, none can be found which leads the viewer to wonder if there are any waiting at the train station which is not visible. The fact that no passengers, train station, or other locomotives are present creates logos of isolation. According to Compose, Design, Advocate logos is when “you are building an ordered set of elements that your audience follows visually-and hence conceptually-to arrive at the points you want to make” (285). With only blue-collar laborers present in the photo, logically the viewer assumes that surrounding area is not swarming with anxious passengers. Focusing on the locomotive in turn creates an appeal to pathos because the viewer is curious about the train’s future destination and its previous location. Feelings toward this locomotive will vary between audience members because “your specific cultural background will shape your own specific response” (CDA 274).
The cropping element that has the biggest impact on the argument is the fact that the train towers over the men. Size plays a major role in implementing this argument. Also, the seven men are all about the same size, creating sameness. The massiveness of the locomotive is able to contrast with this sameness and stand out in the photograph. These framing elements put an emphasis on the locomotive and not the men. The main locomotive and the subsequent rails are placed diagonally to the picture’s frame but parallel to each other. This creates a unity via repetition and also helps highlight these elements from the rest of the photograph. The men are all vertically aligned with the sides of the photo, creating a concrete base for the more drastically aligned objects to play off of. The unorthodox alignment of the locomotive evokes pathos of interest in the viewer. This causes inquiries about the contents of the train, where it’s headed, and whether or not it will have a successful journey.
Contrasting hues play a major role in contributing to the argument in this photograph. The eye is first drawn to the black locomotive because it contrasts so drastically with the white surroundings. These two hues are exact opposites, forcing juxtaposition into the photograph. Also, the lightly saturated blue hues in the sky help make the steam from the locomotive stand out and not be immersed in the sky line. The front of the locomotive is highly saturated because it is facing away from the sun. This high saturation continues in the shadow the locomotive casts on the car on the adjacent track. This creates an overall darker feel in the right portion of the photograph, while the left (especially the upper left) is bright and has a more open feel to it. Such contrasting elements help the viewer to focus on the locomotive with no work involved at all. The photograph is designed to highlight the importance of using resources such as transportation to gain advantages in war. Therefore, a jet black locomotive surrounded by light hues creates the perfect contrast to support this argument.
The unique coloration of this photograph creates prominent vectors of attention that help to further the argument. One obvious vector of attention that is noticeable immediately is the locomotive. . Since the locomotive is so gargantuan, it diminishes the significance of the conductor and the other men by drawing attention to itself. With its front end pointing toward its destination, it creates a vector of attention that is aimed at something outside the photo. Since the front of the train is not positioned directly toward the audience, distance is created. The audience is an onlooker of this scene and therefore not significantly emotionally attached to the photo.
From the title we know that this train is about to the leave the station. Logically, we believe these men were loading the train and preparing it for departure. Three of these men’s vectors of attention are directed toward the right bottom corner of the photo (the tracks leading to the next destination). This presents an ethos of expectation or accomplishment since they have finished their job. Ethos is defined by CDA as “‘the face you put on’ for the audience” (192). The man furthest from the camera has a vector of attention aimed at the group of men gathered around the locomotive, especially the man on the far left. Concerning ethos, he seems distant and lagging creating pathos of loneliness and isolation. The man on the far left is staring at the locomotive with his whole body pointed toward it. It seems he has a connection with the locomotive; he knows how crucial it is that the train makes it to its destination and delivers the helpful cargo to the soldiers. Finally, the last and most intriguing man is addressing his attention to the window of the locomotive where the conductor’s torso is visible! From this observation one can infer that these two men have a deeper connection than the others do.
Through these vectors of attention one realizes that all these men have a bond with this train and what it represents. The train is more important than any of these men and represents a conglomeration of efforts from masses of people to aid soldiers in need. A wartime photograph aims to show that everyone was working for the greater good and this photograph exemplifies that through the men's vectors of attention.
Santa Fe R.R. freight train about to leave for the West Coast from Corwith yard, Chicago, Ill uses varying vectors of attention, coloration via contrasting hues, and isolating framing to signify the importance of using resources during war and unifying a nation to lead it to victory. All these technical elements center on the locomotive and not the men. This is a monumental decision since many photographs have humans as the main subject. A machine having more importance than men is congruent with war because the success of the group as a whole is more significant than the success of individuals. The take-home message that viewers should get from this photograph is that it is sometimes necessary to express humility and use all of our resources to surmount obstacles.
Works Cited
"A WW2 Timeline." World War 2 Timelines 1939-1945. 2006. www.worldwar-2.net, Web. 17 Feb 2010.
"How Trains Helped Win a War." Utah History to Go. 2010. utah.gov, Web. 18 Feb 2010.
Wysocki, Anne Frances and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate: A rhetoric for integrating written, visual, and oral communication. New York, NY: Pearson-Longman, 2007.
