When beginning this project, I spent a great deal of time browsing the numerous photographs available through the Library of Congress’ collection of images produced by the New Deal’s Farm Security Administration. Although I did not have a particular subject in mind at the start of this project, I soon found myself skimming through photographs documenting the works of the Tennessee Valley Authority. I was initially drawn towards the aesthetics of early 20th century machinery captured in these images but later found a greater amount of pleasure in a photograph capturing a young man tightening a nut at the T.V.A.’s Watts Bar Dam.
In this image, the young man has on his face a look of both determination and satisfaction. While his task is simple – tightening a nut – he appears to do it with great energy and is fulfilled by his work. I believe this image to be an excellent demonstration of the energy that propelled this nation out of the Great Depression. This young man, like so many other workers at the time, is driven to repair his broken nation through his own grit. Tightening a single nut on a single guide vane would not ensure the stability of the dam, but neither would one person being employed solve the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Only through a collective effort could this country have hoped to recover from its economic collapse.
Although it is present in this photograph, this young man’s mission and part in the reconstruction of his country are more easily recognizable in a glitched version of this image which I have created. In his article Glitching History, Michael J. Kramer explains that these glitches help to bring about the same elements I have discussed above from photographs. These seemingly random changes highlight different aspects of an image and bring new critical analysis to the foreground.
In the case of my photograph, the young man’s hands, mouth, and eyes are all separated from one another and draw the viewer’s eyes to his helmet embossed with the acronym T.V.A. The young man’s grit (as symbolized by his hands), satisfaction (as symbolized by his proud smile), and focus on rebuilding his nation (as symbolized by the determined look in his eyes) all lead back towards his helmet which was provided to him by a government program set on rebuilding the nation. All these different pieces are emphasized in this glitched image and highlight their importance towards the central goal of reconstruction.
Thanks to the practice of glitching, viewers can recognize these powerful factors that brought our nation back from the Great Depression as well as those who helped to accomplish this goal.
