Blog Post #5: Lynching Photograph

For this blog post, I decided to choose a more serious topic. The idea was inspired by a photography and politics class I took in MIT. We studied lynching photographs and asked the question, how can we view these photographs today in a different light? The photo below is a well-known lynching photo from 1930. The two young boys were hanged because they were accused of raping a young white girl.

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0309/lm18.html

In class, we were first shown only the bottom half of the image with all the spectators. We talked about what we saw. I noticed the young woman in a flowery dress holding a man's hand. It appears as if they are on a date or at least some sort of couple. They look perfectly content. We also talked about the people who seem to be looking straight into the camera, such as the man in the middle with a moustache.  Without seeing the two lynched bodies above, this photo appears as a normal social gathering of people. However, the meaning of the photo drastically changes when we learn what is actually going on. Therefore, the layout and arrangement of the photograph is key to how viewers interpret the image. 

For me, the importance of this photo is that it shows how context can completely change the meaning and purpose of a photograph. Originally, these lynching photos were printed on postcards to disseminate the idea of white supremacy. Now, these photos are shown in textbooks and classrooms to teach a lesson of tolerance. This photo can be used to convey the argument that it is not right to stand by and watch injustice. By showing how easy it is to misinterpret this image, it is revealing how the seemingly innocent spectators are really witnesses to a terrible act of cruelty. Their blank, sometimes smiling faces come off as disturbing when the true photo is shown.