Link to Omeka Item: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/175
Link to Omeka Exhibit: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/robert-cook–children-of-unemp/robert-cook–children-of-unemp
When I went to find an image, I wanted to find an image that focused on the impoverished people of the great depression. I found it using the library of congress link for “FSA photographs” in our resource guide. The image depicts two small children, one girl holding her little brother while in a cabin in Louisiana. The fact that these two were photographed together might signify that family sticking together was important in the 1930s due to the great depression. The fact that this was documented at all, just two children being together shows that not only family, but the youth of the nation could be an important aspect to American life, which is an aspect shown in other famous photographs, like “Migrant Mother”. 1
The historical question I was asking was “How can the government show the American people that despite being poor, they can still make it by working together?”. This is an important question to ask, especially in this time period, as keeping America together, and hopeful was a very important aspect for the government’s agencies. 2
The first method of annotating the image without glitching it or doing anything to it help me to think more critically of an image by really focusing on what the creator intended, what the audience perceived, and by the setting this photograph was taken in. Glitching the image on the other hand helped me interpret the image in ways that the average image couldn’t. For instance, by glitching it the way I did, it completely changed the meaning I saw in the image, from one that was hopeful, to a hopeless one. Personally, I like the first method more than glitching, as it can be very hard to find meaning in the complete randomness that is glitching.
To me, this photo helps to show off that even small children stick together when times are tough for them, and so if they can do it, then so can we as the American people. While after glitching the image, I saw separation between the two rather than unity. Basically, by glitching the image, I totally changed my view on how it can be interpreted.
