Category: Image Analysis

Blog Post #3/ Skill assignment #3

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/173

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/nathan-brostoff-milk-for-the-n

For my image I selected a poster for a welfare program in New York City that was published some time between 1936 and 1939. I chose this image because it popped out at me when scrolling through photographs from the Federal Art Project as something that could really emphasize the struggles that many Americans were going through during the Great Depression. The dominating milk bottle immediately grabs the viewer’s attention who then reads, “Give to the needy, join the Mayor’s welfare fund!” while at the bottom it advertises a play that will be put on at the Laurel Theater. This suggests that there were people wealthy enough in New York at the time to spend money on leisure activities but they weren’t as willing to donate to those in need. Welfare programs such as this one not only gave aid to the needy but allowed the government to employ artists through the Works Progress Administration, Morris Dickstein writes in his article, Facing the Music, ” The government projects were serious and instructive but also uplifting and, significantly, they provided an economic stimulus in the form of jobs for artists.” 1 This poster made me wonder why certain members of society had to be coerced into helping the needy, they were more willing to spend money on a show than going out to buy milk for a starving child. I believe this question is partially answered by Morris Dickstein’s article in the Los Angeles Times How song, dance and movies bailed us out of the Depression ” The most durable cliche about the arts in the 1930s is that despite the surge of social consciousness among writers, photographers and painters (some of it supported by federal dollars), the arts offered Depression audiences little more than fluffy escapism, which was just what they needed.” 2 But I don’t believe that is the whole story. These methods helped me analyze this poster in pieces, taking each part of the poster to have its own meaning and purpose, contributing to the whole product. When viewed this way I was able to get a deeper understanding for the meaning behind its creation. I was able to delve deeper into my historical thinking and not just see this poster as a way to persuade people with money to help the poor, but as a method for their own healing as well as making sure the arts didn’t die in America.

The Glitch

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/luke-beverley/glitched-creek-county

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/151

For my assignment, I decided that I wanted a photograph that depicted the plight of black communities in the Depression. I discovered that there existed a prominent photographer named Russell Lee that strove to document just that, to introduce white America to the lives of different communities and inspire sympathy through his photographs. I chose to glitch one of Lee’s excellent prints, one that I found had the most pathos and industrious, determined spirit we discussed in class. To glitch it, I simply added the entire lyrics to Eminem’s “Without Me” within the code.

Black history can be dreadfully depressing. It seems impossible to imagine that amidst such woe and poverty, black people were ever tapped into the same individualism and grit of their white counterparts. But when one looks at the context of this picture, one sees an echo of that America; in 1940, “despite the fact the white school received free books, none arrived for the Negros. The teacher was so afraid of losing her job that she would not make any inquiries about the books and the children were sharing the few books some could buy.” (Lee) Lee’s photo encapsulates that sentiment keenly, the determined need to better oneself and be educated, the marriage of self-improvement and solidarity. In spite of the adverse conditions– the shortage of textbooks, the crampedness of the desk– these two girls learn and are willing to learn, and are willing to spread the wealth. When one adds the lyrics of “Without Me”, the claustrophobic desk and restricted bodies are erased, the meagre textbook locking their gazes wiped from view, to prioritise the girls’ heads. This is what the American spirit stands for: in spite of every hardship, value your singular wits. 3

The glitched image established my new take on Lee’s picture, acting as something of a mantra for my analysis. But did black communities feel the same Depression-proof American spirit that white communities felt? The results are muddled. While many more black students became literate in the 1930s than in the 1890s, that literacy was undeniably shallow, usually consisting of eighth-grade level comprehension. The simple fact is that those educations were at second-rate Jim Crow schools. Black educator Benjamin Mays terms it best, maintaining that the “inevitable consequences of inequality has warped the minds and spirits of thousands of Negro youths. They either grow to manhood accepting the system… with bitterness in their minds. It is the rare Negro child who comes through perfectly normal and poised under the segregated system.” (Mays) Though the education was poor, it is supremely telling that black people still wanted to find the time; “The children need all the education they can get, but we need them to help on the farm. If you don’t make your crop, the white man will put somebody else here to do the work.” (Irons) They and their children exerted themselves for education– the two girls worked with their disadvantages without visible resentment– and though the education was poor, the effort and the purpose here show, in part, that one’s singular wits were always in centre focus. 4

“Children of Unemployed Trapper” and it’s glitch

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”. 5

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. 6

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. 

Photo Analysis and Glitching

At first I wanted to find a photograph of real people to analyze, but as I search I didn’t find any that I connected with and felt like I could properly analyze. Then I started to go through WPA posters and I found mine (http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/nationalyouthadministration/nya-advertisement and http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/158) soon after. I thought it revealed a part of the Depression Era that we haven’t talked about yet, which is the children. We’ve mentioned them in class, but we haven’t talked about their role in the depression and on how they were working as well to help their families. I thought this poster embodies the willingness of the young kids who wanted to work and how they could contribute to the family at such a young age. I have a few historical questions that I’ve been asking. One of them is what was the role of children in the Great Depression? This poster helps answer that by calling for boys to come learn how to work, but what about the younger children who couldn’t work? What about the young girls who maybe wanted to work but weren’t being catered to like the young boys were? This poster doesn’t answer any of those questions but rather brought them to my attention. I think the glitching method would’ve been engaging if I had been able to make it with my own computer, but even without it I still felt like I was changing the image to make it my own. When I first watched the video about glitching I enjoyed how much fun they had with it and how every image was personal to them in a way and wanted to make one that had colors blocking the image 7. Then without even knowing what I was doing, I was able to glitch my image to have colors blocking the bottom half of the image. I felt like it allowed me to focus on only the top half and realize how important the image was to the poster. The picture is of a young, white, able bodied boy, which would be the ideal person that the National Youth Administration wanted in their programs. What led me to this analysis was not only the picture but also from the Introduction of Jennifer Ritterhouse’s book Discovering the South: One Man’s Travels Through a Changing America in the 1930s because of how it talks about the racism that was still very much present 8. By bringing race and gender into the conversation I got a better idea of what employers were looking for, even though they could use any worker they could get. I know a lot of people were skeptical of this method and in some ways I am as well, but I feel like this project helped me understand how you can look at images differently from them being glitched. I don’t think it works for every picture, but for this one it helped me focus on who this ad was aimed at, which then answered some parts of my historical question.

Music’s reflection on society

For this assignment I chose the image of two immigrants from Turkey playing their music together.9 I chose this image because of the importance that music has in society. During the 1930’s there are new forms of music that are being showcased around the country and without international music influences certain genres may not have been able to rise. Documenting people in the 1930’s in America represents the importance of collaboration even if it is music. Playing music together and expanding on other culture’s music to create new forms of sound is a small but necessary step in the creation of a united culture through playing music. I asked the question here, how does musical influence represent the values of society?

During the 1930’s the Great Depression took its toll on American life and what better way to pass time than to play music? Sharing music with one another represents a community’s hobbies that perhaps only exist to pass time during a gray period of history. In an article published by the Los Angeles times, the author mentions that the Great Depression provided times of despair, fear, and an overall lack of morale. 10 Music gave the people of the time an opportunity to ease their minds and to not think of the despair that they are enduring together as a whole nation. In section VI of the American Yawp there is a discussion of “dislocated populations.”11 Dislocated populations also had the same need for prosperity as the Americans of the time. Regardless of why an immigrant chose to come to the United States, each individual citizens suffered through the tumultuous times. The power of music allows for people, both local and dislocated, to join together in collaboration of new music.

Exploring the different types of exhibits allow for users to understand resources (photos, recordings, etc.) within their own contexts. Glitching images provide the user with the opportunity to create a new form of analysis, depending on how the glitch is finalized. Although glitching is a user-created item, it can be a useful process to shed light on issues that may not be welcomed to discuss in the open. The photo from the Berkeley Folk Music Revival shows the audience who to focus on through the glitching process that puts the African-American man in the middle of the photograph rather than the two white musicians.12 My attempt at glitching could argue that the various colors within the picture represent the different sound of the immigrant’s music that influences society’s musical tastes and feelings. 13

Dick Tracy and the Glitch

Omeka Link: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/tracy-and-the-glitch/tracy

I chose this image for several reasons. The first being that comics and visual storytellers have had a profound and forward effect on western culture since the 1930’s. Comics truly have become integral to almost every form of pop culture. The 1930’s was many things, poor, hard, and adverse. the times seemed like bleak days were ahead, but underneath all the chaos a theme of movement perpetuated the chaos of the times.14 Of all the storytelling techniques comics are the most movement based and movement invigorated. Comics take this subtle theme of the times and brings it into the lower art world. This particular comic was published at the end of The New Deal.15  There is no reason to read a comic if there’s no movement. This particular comic Dick Tracy was about a detective by that name, and inside this bit of the story elements of social norms are clearly seen. The lady in the expensive fur coat is seen calling people fools even though there is little back story to her character there is a set of assumptions to her character. This comic was aimed at the popular audience, and that means appealing to popular stereotypes. Then as it turns out she is in fact the shooter in a guise to take advantage of stereotypes to get away from the detective. 

From the glitching process we are able to think more critically about the role of movement and sacrifice in the minds of historians. The glitching erased the unnecessary ad, but also interrupted the movement of the story. The movement paced itself at a high level, giving the reader a sense of true adventure and excitement. But the glitch removed the true experience from that. Then the glitch also erased the name of the comic. What we cut out of history may take what we need with it.

Sometimes when we study history we ignore certain things, like an ad. But whether or not we see it, analyze it, or incorporate it doesn’t determine whether its necessary to the project or not. When we consider history we must consider all of history, the good, the bad, the ugly. We cannot pick and chose, because what we cut out of history may take what we need with it. I found the glitching process interesting, because I only saw what I wanted to see. I wanted to be done with the interrupting ad, but how I value this change is totally dependent on me. Someone might look at it and say that the glitch is ridding the historian of an incredibly important bit of information, like the introduction of an ad. However, because I’m looking at it from a value of movement perspective I get annoyed at the ad for interrupting the flow. Glitching is important in the perspective of a visual aid in the story of history, but dangerous in the perspective of historical analysis. 16

Blog Post #3: WWII Propaganda can Show The Lessons of the 1930’s

In order to connect these images with the 1930s and Depression era one must look at what was going on in the countries during that time. this image was taken during World War II and US during the 1940s how were they call back to a time in which U.S. as well as Germany was in a time of hardship. While Germany and somewhat Japan chose to blame minorities culminating in things like the “night of broken glass” and the “night of Long Knives” the United States chose to not only foster community through artwork as well as culture but also some people chose to address racist issues in the United States. This is the exact lesson that the United States learned from the Depression era; in order for Progress to be made one must unify the country and not split it like the Nazis did in their country as well as the Axis powers. the propaganda shown in the image heightens this assertion, the propaganda shown on the US side is clear meant to instill hope and come together. Also, while it is not shown directly, Nazi propaganda is notorious for being a racist and open to degrading other people and minorities in order for that to foster community. However, as it was somewhat shown by the glitched image, it is clear at this propaganda does not work. Overtime the Nazi’s and the Japanese failed at creating a community and thus lost the war. They pushed away people and from this they could never truly recover.

When selecting this image it was important to remember that this was not taken during the 1930s; however, that does not mean that it cannot be connected to the 1930s. The image needed to be something that connected back to the Depression era as well as showed change that had been a direct result from that time. This image is perfect as it exemplifies what the United States Information Office had learned from the propaganda and programs of the 1930s. it is clear that FDR’s goal during the 1930s was to foster a community with increase in culture and economic programs. This same sense of community was used in World War II propaganda against Nazis due to the fact that axis propaganda routinely separated people. In order to counter this United States war information office used that same message of coming together against the Axis Powers. If many of the programs and the culture of the 1930s had not happened these types of propaganda would not exist.

As stated before this image was not created in the 1930s, thus naturally one of the biggest questions was how can this be connected back to the depression-era? This also went into other questions: what from the 1930s influence this picture and how, if it had not happened, would it have changed? That is to say if the culture and the lessons of the 1930s had not happened what parts of this image would be different? Furthermore, because of the lessons and effects of the 1930s into this image, what resulted from that? Finally, what effects of the digitization of this image are apparent today? Many of these can be answered by looking at the result of the war and the propaganda. In doing this you will see what worked and what did not work. When finally answering what resulted in today’s world from these images one can see unifying ideas still being present today.

One method that was highly engaging and useful was that of the corrupting and glitching process. While I was a skeptic at first, after glitching the image many of the ideas talked about in the annotations would not have been possible without the process. The idea that one side of propaganda had worked and one other side did not came directly as a result from the glitching of the image. Also when annotating the image it is very helpful to not only focus on single parts of the image but what they mean. when looking at an image of a whole it is very easy to slip into looking at at an idea that is too large. by focusing in and honing in on ideas within the image one can peel back the layers and truly understand what the message is.

By using these methods the questions posed are honed in on much like parts of the image. As stated before one of the issues when analyzing images is one tends to focus on too big of an idea. However, using things like glitching allows the person to in some cases cover up unimportant parts of the images or created new images with a new ideas. these new ideas can sometimes allow the person hear it from a different angle and us have a better picture overall. finally with this information one can try and answer some of the questions that may have seemed difficult or abstract. Most of the time they are really not extract you must simply look at it from a different angle and these methods help in doing so.

Links to Items and Exhibits:

Exhibit: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/americancounterpropagandaimage/americancounterpropagandaimage

Item: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/168

Citation:

Holocaust Encyclopedia “Nazi Propaganda” (2019) United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum Retrieved: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda

Jewish Virtual Library “The Nazi Party: The Night of Long Knives”
(2019) Jewish Virtual Library: A Project of Aice Retrieved: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-night-of-the-long-knives

Madison Horne “These World War II Propaganda Posters Rallied the Home
Front” (March 13, 2019) History.com Retrieved: https://www.history.com/news/world-war-ii-propaganda-posters-photos-united-states-home-front

Micheal Berebaum “Kristellnacht | German History” (2019)
Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved: https://www.britannica.com/event/Kristallnacht

 

Music Lessons

The image I selected is from the Work Project Administration. The image shows a teacher practice and teach three students about music and teaching them about a trade within music and production. I selected this image because it shows how people are hoping for the future and being more optimistic. People are also getting back to work in any manners possible, so this woman is working with children as a teacher while her husband is at work. This photo reveals the hope and optimism to get people back on their feet and working again. Also, children are hope for the future and if they are getting involved and excited for something such as music then everybody can be successful.1

These methods of image analysis and annotation make it easier and more efficient to think critically about photos. For example, you can connect different themes and ideas among photos. It is possible to make connections and more easily show the reader some important information, rather than putting a paragraph caption under a photo. Digital images are hard to give the viewer a connection, but with annotations within an image then the viewer can understand and value a photo more. While, I find glitching interesting, I find image annotation more useful because I can connect to certain aspects better with separate annotations.

My Historical Question is “How did the Work Project Administration help citizens get back on their feet and back to work making money? This photo helps show how people are preparing to get back to work and work with children. These methods of image analysis make it easier to answer this question in the sense that analysis will help show the different ideals and answers. Drawing from this, workers were excited to get back to work and many people were excited to work within the Federal Work Projects including music, theater, and writing. These people wanted a better life and would walk over 8 miles a day to get lessons and work. 17

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/155

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/teacherwithwpamusicclass

Skill Assignment 3!

The image that I selected was a photo of a woman hammering a nail into a board, in a sea of spectators, during a nail driving competition in 1939 (http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/admin/items/show/id/164). The first thing about the photo that caught my eye, was that the main focus of the image was a woman holding a hammer, surrounded primarily by other women. It struck me in particular since hard labor tasks that would involve tools (i.e. a hammer) would have been largely dominated by men during the 1930s. Reading more of the details concerning the photo, I was really intrigued to learn that it was documentation of a nail driving competition, which is essentially a contest to determine who is able to hammer a nail into a board as quickly and as completely as possible 18 19.  The image was documented at a workers camp in Arvin, California. Work camps were meant to be temporary housing for people recruited to work on New Deal projects, so the idea of having fun events and competitions (such as this documented in the photo) in a place that may not have been the happiest environment, places an importance on the efforts undertaken, if not by the New Deal programs then by the workers themselves, to promote morale and positivity as much as they could. This image really drove me to the question, how did the New Deal really affect people’s morale and outlook on the Great Depression? Were there any goals in the New Deal to promotive or help develop a positive mentality going forward, or was this a product of the people themselves?

            There’s always a difference in analyzing an image that’s in its original tangible state, versus analyzing one that’s been digitized, but there’s definitely something to be gained through digital analysis by being able to focus in on certain areas of the image, and being able to analyze how all the smaller parts of the photo form the whole story. Being able to go farther into a detailed look of the expressions, dress, stance, and position of everyone in the photo was a really interesting way to analyze this photo, and it allowed me to get a better feel for the overall emotion of the group in the photo. While having the physical photo is always beneficial, special attention to very specific detail can be done much more easily, or much more efficiently with a digital image. Drawing off of everyone’s expression, man or woman, competitor or spectator, made the image come more alive, and brought a very positive feel to the aura of the image, and I concluded that while the economic barrier was somewhat broken by the federal New Deal, overcoming the barrier of the actual feeling of depression and hopelessness that had been spread by the Great Depression economic crash, was itself very much a product of the people. My exhibit hosts the original digital image, and a glitched version to pair, http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/camparvinactivity .

Bibliography:

“Ladies Nail Driving Contest.” Grantoberfest. Accessed October 8, 2019. http://grantoberfest.com/ladies-nail-driving-contest/.


“Nail Driving Competition.” York Builders Association. Accessed October 8, 2019. https://yorkbuilders.com/cool_timeline/nail-driving-competition/.


Hemmig, Robert. “Woman Hammering a Nail into a Board with Spectators Looking On.” The Library of Congress. Accessed October 8, 2019. https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc1985001.afc1985001_p017/?r=-0.428,0.145,1.951,0.945,0.

Image Analysis & Glitching Process

I found the image I chose to use from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War collection. It is easy to tell how this image applies to the Office of War as it is an image of a man standing behind a large supply of military weapons and ammunition. This photo was taken in 1942, the year after the U.S. entered World War 2. The end of 1930s saw the beginning of the second World War. Despite the tragic events of WW2, the war did assist in bringing the U.S. out of the negative impacts of the Great Depression. More and more factories were opened and booming due to high demand in supplies for the war, creating many new jobs. As men went away to fight in the war, many women were left to take on jobs they left behind. 20 The benefits of World War 2 that the U.S. experienced makes me wonder: how did Americans of this time view the war and if did they support the war efforts?

Image analysis and the glitching process both offer different ways to look at and understand an image you may not otherwise. Simply by doing an image analysis on the original image allowed me to think more critically about what was happening in the image, the context and reasoning behind said image. The glitching process not only created an entirely new feel to the image, but allowed me to view details about the image I missed before. In Michael J. Kramer’s example of glitching, it places an African American man in the forefront of the image instead of the two other white men revealing a new narrative for folk music. 21 In the image I selected, there is a man standing behind a large amount of ammunition that can’t all be shown just from one picture, but after the glitch the amount of arsenal that is depicted seems endless. This allows us to think about just how much arsenal the U.S. needed and used during the war and just how much destruction, due to the fighting, and economic growth, due to an increase of jobs there was.

Exhibit Link: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/thunderfortheartillery/artilleryin1942

Omeka Item Link: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/165

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