Analyzing documentary photography was something new to me before this class. I was of the attitude that my interpretation of what a photographer is communicating was something that was only important for me. However, I have since realized that analyzing something and putting it in a form that others would be able to look at and analyze is simply furthering the communication of the piece. I took this new approach when looking at the photograph I chose as mine to explore.
The photo I have selected is entitled “At Beecher Street School, whose student body consists of half Americans of Italian descent and half of Americans of Polish descent, Southington, Conn. The Queen of the May was Emily Schwak, of Polish extraction; the King, Philip D'Agostino, of Italian” and was taken by Fenno Jacobs in May of 1942.
The context of my argument surrounding this piece includes not in what medium and what type of time period I will be describing my thoughts and my analytical approach to the photograph. I will be communicating in the form of typed text in a blog alongside multimedia elements that I will choose to best accompany my argument. These could take the form of video, audio clips, or pictures that further exemplify aspects of either the photo or my own argument. The build-up of this one final blog that will encapsulate all that I have worked on includes other blog posts that have begun with my initial observations and led up to a more specific rhetorical analysis. This time period-how my argument is chronologically presented and then summed up-is tied in with the people that will be receiving my argument.
As a blog, my argument and future writing piece is practically available to the entire world. My primary audience includes the teacher of this class, classmates from my class now, future students who will take this class, and possibly also former students who have taken this class and are keeping up with the current bloggers. This is important to consider because they will be looking at my argument with the knowledge of what the teacher expected of me and they will know how I was supposed to form my argument and other such knowledge about the assignment. Other people who will have access to this will be anyone who has shown interest in the photograph that I am analyzing or has expertise in the knowledge of the photograph. This is important to consider because of the knowledge they will have about the photograph that I may have stated incorrectly in my analysis or that they have differing opinions. Another group of people are those who have interest in or knowledge of the historical background of the photo such as: Italian and/or Polish immigration, World War II, or the May Day celebration. This is important to consider also because of their possibly differing or better knowledge of these aspects of the photograph that I will be discussing.
My sense of purpose for this argument stems from my motivation for writing the assignment and for the goal of communicating my analysis. My motivation includes that creating a rhetorical analysis of a documentary photograph is an assignment for the class, but my own interest in the topic has influence. I am interested in not only photography but more specifically from the photograph I am interested in the cultural meaning behind the clash of differing ethnic groups brought together in the United States. The goal of my communication is to best prove my rhetorical strategies employed by the photographer. These rhetorical strategies stem from the arrangement of elements in the photo and consequent vectors of attention, differing focus on the two groups of people presented in the photo, and how the photographer chose to present the coloration of the elements in the photograph. My intention of communicating these things is to-in the best way possible- explain the photographer’s own purpose.
