Draft #2

The Photo I'm discussing by John Vachon, which was taken in 1942, depicts a soot covered man at a mining site. This photo has a context that makes you wonder about this man’s life and what he is feeling. It has a historical and emotional context that appeals to me, the life of a miner would be drastically different than that of today’s miner. The thoughts that I get when I look at this photo are that this man is worn down and tired, he feels as if his life is not what he wanted it to be. My argument is that the man is not content with his life and what he has, but that he keeps on going everyday because he feels there is no other way of life. I draw this argument from the man's eyes, his posture, and his overall appearance. I think the photographer adds to this saddened appeal by the way the photo is taken. The lighting around the man’s face, the cropping and the positioning of the man with respects to the camera. The photographer had to think and do all of this to create the photo in which I am talking about. The man clearly lives a dangerous life that alot of people wouldn't ever want to live. This because miners have to do hard manual labor everyday, they work underground without sunlight. A miner hardly gets to see the light of day being underground by day they arriving above ground after work at night. I do wonder what exactly is going through this man’s head and how he ended up with the life that he has. The town in which this man lives, Sunray a small town that’s sole purpose is to produce Carbon Black. This man probably came to the town in search of money and a job, but possibly did not know what he was getting himself into. Him living and working in this town has made him look like the depressed, scary looking man that is potrayed in the photo. This is what I will be discussing in my writing.

The man in this photo is staring directly into the camera drawing the vectors of attention to his face, "Arrangements in photographs indicate lines of direction for our eyes to follow" (350). So in this photo we are directed to his face and he is looking directly at you. While looking at his face I notice his eyes, they are shaded and dark. You cannot fully see the man’s actual eye's but what almost seem to be two holes that look to lead to nothing but darkness. This heightens the photo's feeling of depression and sadness. The soot which covers his face enhances his facial features like the lines and wrinkles around his eyes. These wrinkles by his eyes make you think that he is worn down and saddened. The man’s eyes are also squinted and drooped; it looks like he could cry at any moment. This look of sadness adds to my argument that he does not like the life that he has to deal with everyday. I know that this man is a carbon black miner; this job is no walk in the park. This job takes a toll on the physical and mental state of the normal human. I think this is all told through the eyes, they say the eyes can speak everything the mouth does just by looking into them. With this man I think the saying is true, his emotions are portrayed through his eyes. I think this is why the photographer decided to capture the man in this type of pose. With this straight forward camera shot you can directly see the man’s eyes, giving you full rein to judge which emotion you see in his eyes. In this case his eyes give of an emotion of deep depression and hardship. In CDA it talks about photographs and "drawing on what you know", in this photo it happens to be that being a miner is a tedious job that takes a lot out of a person in every aspect of life (349). Again with the lighting on the man’s face, which seems to have a different hue than anything else in the photo, but then begins to fade toward his eyes. This "isolates" everything else in the photo again drawing you in to make observations and inferences about this man (361).


The next thing that grabs my attention in this photo is the man’s posture, he is standing stern and upright with his head cocked to one side slightly. I feel this man is standing so stern because of his persona that he is trying to uphold. I'm guessing this man has a family and is married with children as most people in his day would be, especially in a small town like his. This man probably has a simplistic mindset of what the common man should be in his day. In this case the provider and the protector, he probably tries to carry himself to uphold this title. I would say the man most likely tries to always carry himself in this way to create this sense of a male hierarchy, but does not do so in his worn facial expressions. In this photo I would say his facial posture does not match that of his bodies posture, this because one is saddened and one is stern. By his facial posture I mean mostly the way he is holding his cigarette and his saggy aged looking face. What I am saying when I talk about the way he is holding his cigarette is that it is loosely sitting on his lips carelessly as if he doesn't know it’s there. This to me shows the man’s feelings of tiredness and depression. Then there is his cringed saggy face, it looks like a person’s face right before the point of tears. This facial expression creates the sense of pathos, for the photo. Most all the emotion in this photo is created through the man’s face (209). The photo is cropped in a way to center and focus in on the man, so the audience’s attention is solely on the man. "Cropping is a very important choice that a photographer makes" the photo is cropped with respects to the man so the audience can analyze this man (355).

Now talking about and pointing out the man's overall appearance as a whole, which in retrospect is a very scary looking man. This man looks so frightening because of his almost inhuman looking characteristics. This man looks inhuman because of his soot covered face; this I think symbolizes what being a miner in 1942 can do to a person. The mining job today is a little different there are many more precautions like hard hats and flame retardent suits as seen in the photo to the right. Being a miner can transform a person totally, this is why the photographer chose to take this picture while the man was on site. Taking this picture in this context changes the whole feeling of the photograph, rather than taking a picture of this man cleaned up and in the confines of his home. Doing this creates ethos or "the face you put on" (192). So in the confines of how this picture was taken and where it was taken changes my argument along with my emotion towards the photo. That is why the man's overall appearance gives me the sense that the job takes alot out of the man.

To conclude this paper and my argument I would like to say again this photo is a sad and dark photo. This photo makes me think about the man’s life and his feelings toward it. I wonder and discuss all of this because of the way the photo is taken, from its context to the pathos it creates. The argument I create is all based on the man's eyes, his posture, and his overall appearance. The reason I create this argument from these things in the photo is because this is what the photographer wanted his audience to look at and draw conclusions upon.

Works Cited
Wysocki, Anne, and Lynch Dennis. Compose Design Advocate, a rhetoric for integrating written, visual and oral communication. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. , 2007.

Project #1

The Photo I'm discussing by John Vachon, which was taken in 1942, depicts a soot covered man at a mining site. This photo has a context that makes you wonder about this man’s life and what he is feeling. It has a historical and emotional context that appeals to me, the life of a miner would be drastically different than that of today’s miner. The thoughts that I get when I look at this photo are that this man is worn down and tired, he feels as if his life is not what he wanted it to be. My argument is that the man is not content with his life and what he has, but that he keeps on going everyday because he feels there is no other way of life. I draw this argument from the man's eyes, his posture, and his overall appearance. I think the photographer adds to this saddened appeal by the way the photo is taken. The lighting around the man’s face, the cropping and the positioning of the man with respects to the camera. The photographer had to think and do all of this to create the photo in which I am talking about. The man clearly lives a dangerous life that alot of people wouldn't ever want to live. This because miners have to do hard manual labor everyday, they work underground without sunlight. A miner hardly gets to see the light of day being underground by day they arriving above ground after work at night. I do wonder what exactly is going through this man’s head and how he ended up with the life that he has. The town in which this man lives, Sunray a small town that’s sole purpose is to produce Carbon Black. This man probably came to the town in search of money and a job, but possibly did not know what he was getting himself into. Him living and working in this town has made him look like the depressed, scary looking man that is potrayed in the photo. This is what I will be discussing in my writing.

The man in this photo is staring directly into the camera drawing the vectors of attention to his face, "Arrangements in photographs indicate lines of direction for our eyes to follow" (350). So in this photo we are directed to his face and he is looking directly at you. While looking at his face I notice his eyes, they are shaded and dark. You cannot fully see the man’s actual eye's but what almost seem to be two holes that look to lead to nothing but darkness. This heightens the photo's feeling of depression and sadness. The soot which covers his face enhances his facial features like the lines and wrinkles around his eyes. These wrinkles by his eyes make you think that he is worn down and saddened. The man’s eyes are also squinted and drooped; it looks like he could cry at any moment. This look of sadness adds to my argument that he does not like the life that he has to deal with everyday. I know that this man is a carbon black miner; this job is no walk in the park. This job takes a toll on the physical and mental state of the normal human. I think this is all told through the eyes, they say the eyes can speak everything the mouth does just by looking into them. With this man I think the saying is true, his emotions are portrayed through his eyes. I think this is why the photographer decided to capture the man in this type of pose. With this straight forward camera shot you can directly see the man’s eyes, giving you full rein to judge which emotion you see in his eyes. In this case his eyes give of an emotion of deep depression and hardship. In CDA it talks about photographs and "drawing on what you know", in this photo it happens to be that being a miner is a tedious job that takes a lot out of a person in every aspect of life (349). Again with the lighting on the man’s face, which seems to have a different hue than anything else in the photo, but then begins to fade toward his eyes. This "isolates" everything else in the photo again drawing you in to make observations and inferences about this man (361).

The next thing that grabs my attention in this photo is the man’s posture, he is standing stern and upright with his head cocked to one side slightly. I feel this man is standing so stern because of his persona that he is trying to uphold. I'm guessing this man has a family and is married with children as most people in his day would be, especially in a small town like his. This man probably has a simplistic mindset of what the common man should be in his day. In this case the provider and the protector, he probably tries to carry himself to uphold this title. I would say the man most likely tries to always carry himself in this way to create this sense of a male hierarchy, but does not do so in his worn facial expressions. In this photo I would say his facial posture does not match that of his bodies posture, this because one is saddened and one is stern. By his facial posture I mean mostly the way he is holding his cigarette and his saggy aged looking face. What I am saying when I talk about the way he is holding his cigarette is that it is loosely sitting on his lips carelessly as if he doesn't know it’s there. This to me shows the man’s feelings of tiredness and depression. Then there is his cringed saggy face, it looks like a person’s face right before the point of tears. This facial expression creates the sense of pathos, for the photo. Most all the emotion in this photo is created through the man’s face (209). The photo is cropped in a way to center and focus in on the man, so the audience’s attention is solely on the man. "Cropping is a very important choice that a photographer makes" the photo is cropped with respects to the man so the audience can analyze this man (355).

Now talking about and pointing out the man's overall appearance as a whole, which in retrospect is a very scary looking man. This man looks so frightening because of his almost inhuman looking characteristics. This man looks inhuman because of his soot covered face; this I think symbolizes what being a miner in 1942 can do to a person. The mining job today is a little different there are many more precautions like hard hats and flame retardent suits as seen in the photo to the right. Being a miner can transform a person totally, this is why the photographer chose to take this picture while the man was on site. Taking this picture in this context changes the whole feeling of the photograph, rather than taking a picture of this man cleaned up and in the confines of his home. Doing this creates ethos or "the face you put on" (192). So in the confines of how this picture was taken and where it was taken changes my argument along with my emotion towards the photo. That is why the man's overall appearance gives me the sense that the job takes alot out of the man.

To conclude this paper and my argument I would like to say again this photo is a sad and dark photo. This photo makes me think about the man’s life and his feelings toward it. I wonder and discuss all of this because of the way the photo is taken, from its context to the pathos it creates. The argument I create is all based on the man's eyes, his posture, and his overall appearance. The reason I create this argument from these things in the photo is because this is what the photographer wanted his audience to look at and draw conclusions upon.

Works Cited

Wysocki, Anne, and Lynch Dennis. Compose Design Advocate, a rhetoric for integrating written, visual and oral communication. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. , 2007.

Statement of Purpose

While looking at my photo and reading my comments I would like my audience to realize that they probably have a much easier life than the man in my photo. My audience should start to understand what the daily life of a miner might be like. If I can not establish this argument than my audience will lose interset and not care for the true meaning of this photo.

As I looked into this photo I began to understand it more and what this mans life is actually like. The life of this man and everyone in his community is to work at the carbon black plant. The whole town along with every life in it revoles around the extraction of this material. Think of this carbon black plant as the human hart and if it is not working than the whole body is not working, the body being the town. I would like the audience to understand this point in the literal sense that working in these unsatisfactory conditions was the only option this man probably had, along with alot of other men in the community. Just looking at this mans face and examming it for a short time you can come up with the idea that his job is not one that many would want. The job itself can shorten ones life dramatically. I would like my audience to see the daily life of the carbon black miner. I feel that no one would ever want to work underground never seeing the light of day for the rest of their lives.

In terms of the contexof my audience, it is the class and Mr. Ware, and whoever stumbles upon my website. My true goal in writing this blog is to learn a greater concept of examining photos and their true meaning, while establishing an argument to convey to my audience. By writing this purpose statment,I wish to establish a stronger argument than I would my just making some initial inferences. The audience I want to intriuge would be the common American person who does nothave many worries, other than what their going to wear for the day. This audience I would like to send a message to, I would like to let them know that they have it pretty good, and that people like this man are the reason they have it so good.

As for my work being on the internet I must write in a way that captures a larger audience. This is because with the web their are many more possible viewers therfore I must inhance my writing and writing style. Doing this will help me grab this larger audience and bring them in. hopefully connecting them to my purpose and pursuading them to believe what I do.

This photograph was taken in Sunray, Texas a small town in the northern tip of Texas close to the border of Oklahoma. When I first found this picture I did not know the location of the photo but would have guessed somewere in the south. I figured it was the photo was taken on site at a local mine. The photo was taken in 1942 in the height of the carbon black refining. Most of my first insights were true, but I did not know everything. The town first originated in 1930 when a man invested in the land to start an carbon black plant. The town was going to first be called "Altman" but was changed because a town in the county already had the name. The name was than changed to "Sunray" after the oil company that was there. The first lots of land in the town were acctualy sold for 10 dollars a peice. The town lived and still does on the refining of this black carbon. This carbon is used in the production of cars, mainly tires. Knowing these things somewhat changes my feelings of the photo. Me knowing that the town runs on the mining and refining of carbon, lets me know more about the daily life of this man. His whole life relies on the production of this carbon. The town itself is 1.7 mi, which is extreamly small. This carbon black that is produced in this town is now know to be linked to global warming and is really bad for the environment. So I cannot even imagine what health problems it would cause for this man, breathing it in daily.

This photo today that I have picked is a little different in terms of the way it was taken and the message I think the photographer wanted to convey. Instead of bringing about a dark and depressed man, this photo shows a proud, hard working man. The photo has way more light and contrast, the man is still covered in dirt, but it gives a more rugged hard working American feeling. The photo itself has more vectors of attention then just the man, like the rail car and his tools. The lighting and cropping are also very different. There is much more color and hue in this photo creating a different mood, than the other photo. This man seems to look like he takes pride, and is more at peace with his job. This is possibly because this man works above ground welding and such.

Seeing these two different photos and knowing some background information of what I was looking at really changed the way I look at the photo. Both these men come from the same place at the same time, but they both look like they are in different places and different states of minds.

Synthstuff. Nov, 2005. 30, Sept 2009. www.synthstuff.com/mt/archives/2005_12.html

"Black Carbon." Wikipedia. Web. 30, Sept 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunray,_Texas

"Sunray, Texas." Wikipedia. Web. 30, Sept 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunray,_Texas

My photo is a close up of a dirt covered miner, the vector of attention lies within the man. Then there are other vectors of attention in the man's face.  When I look at the photo I am drawn to the mans dark and dirty look.  His eye's alone give you a terrible depressed feeling.  You can see the pain in his eye's, you can see it in the way he is smoking his cigarette.  The way it just hangs off his lips with no care.  Then there is the shadowy building in the background it creates a gloomy feeling, and a sense of wonder what is the object, possibly the top of the mine shaft.  Then there is the mans ripped clothing this is another vector I am drawn to.  Then there is the mans whole face it is as if it is frammed with in the photo the way the light hits it, but not his eye's.These vectors create the logos, or argument in this photo.  It gives the argument that if you are a miner you will look like this, you will feel what this man is feeling.  Then in terms of the way this photo was taken and cropped.  I feel the photographer took this photo and focused in on the man to get this feeling of depression.  He cropped out almost all the background to get you to focus in on the man and his face.  He wants his viewers to focus on the man's face and try to understand what he is feeling.  The lighting in this photo also gives you a dark feeling almost every thing is shadowed, part of the mans face is in darkness to give you the feeling of sadness.  The man's eye's are shadowed in darkness, it looks as if he does not even have eye's just two deep holes running through his head.  The color or hue in this photo is dark, as if it is almost black and white.  There are no bright or vibrant colors just dark and depressed colors.  This darkness gives the photo a rhetorical appeal of hate and again depression.  The man looks almost unhuman with his dirt covered and shadowed face.  He looks like a living monster, all his humanly features covered with dirt.  All these things in the photo make you wonder what this mans life is really like what does he go through on a daily bases.  This is what the photographer I feel wants to instill in your head.  That is why the photo looks the way it does and this is what attracted me to the photo.