Sunday, September 25, 2011

Visual Rhetoric of the Great Depression and the Great Recession

In this post I am going to compare and explore the differences in visual rhetoric from the Great Depression of the 1930’s to the visual rhetoric of the great recession of the 2000’s. It is often stated that a picture is worth a thousand words, so clearly photographs have a huge influence on us as people. They have the ability to make us feel a certain way and impact our choices. While photography has come a long way since the 30’s, it is still a creative form of expression that impacts how we think and feel about something.

Look at the above photograph; it is one of the most iconic pictures of the Great Depression. You probably have no idea how much of an impact this one photograph had. Let’s think of the original context of this picture, this captured life at one of the many FSA farms across the country. What you probably don’t realize is that the photographer was only one the farm because her family’s car broke down. You probably also didn’t know that this particular farm received 20,000 pounds of food from the federal government because of this picture. The headlines read that thousands were starving in these camps and the photo was there to cause an emotional response. This photo put a personal face with one of the hardest times in American history. This iconic photo is still used today and it defines an important period of our history.

The photographer appealed to pathos in this picture and it worked. She made the audience feel bad for the people at these farms and it resulted in help from the government. The photos used today to document the great recession are doing the same thing. They show people standing in long unemployment lines and pictures of children growing up in poverty. Photo editing software has also given people the ability to alter the original photos to make a greater appeal to you emotions. The technology has changed a great deal since the depression, but photographers are still appealing to your emotions and are able to impact your decisions with a single photograph. Next week I might explore more visual rhetoric focusing more on the great recession.

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2 comments:

  1. Aylor ElizabethSeptember 28, 2011 at 12:37 PM

    This picture is a great example of how a photograph can appeal to emotion. The sadness on the women's face shows just how hard times were. I like how you compared the Great Depression to the recession because it gives the reader a comparison of something they have lived through. This reminds me of the TV commercials that show starving orphans in Africa in return for monetary donations.

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  2. CandiceSeptember 29, 2011 at 6:50 AM

    I didn't realize that this photograph aroused so much pathos that it moved the government to donate food to the farm. Specific aspects of the photo such as the worried look on the woman's face and the presence of children really contribute to its emotional appeal. Great example of successful rhetoric!

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