Photograph Exercise

Garret Hogan


Seeing Question #1

To the unfamiliar eye, many of the photographs would seem quite shocking. From the plentiful amounts of food of the Fernandez family to the what looks like scraps the Aboubakar family is feasting upon, there is something that no one has ever experienced before. In order to describe the photos to someone who has never seen them, one would need to start by explaining some what of the family's history that is seen in the photograph. For instance for the Japanese family, one would have to know that the way of eating is extremely different. For instance on Christmas, it is a tradition to eat KFC. But regardless of that fact, one may be surprised at the large amounts of seafood as their main dish. But once they consider the geographical location of this family... an island... it becomes much more clear and able to understand. Also just from the photographs themselves one can make many inferences about the family's in them. For example in the Mendoza family the food is very bright but a bit dirty, by this it is obvious that that family has grown most of this food themselves. In my personal opinion, the Aboubakar is the most intense. Not just the food- or lack there of- but also the background image. The barren desert that can be seen in the distance just adds more of an impact to the photo. This photo and the characteristics about it make me appreciate it so much more just because of the simple fact that it is most un-like my own.

Writing Question #1

The Mendoza family of Guatemala's photo can easily be described by the phrases "hard working" and "proud." Hard working can easily be argued because of the fact that you can see that this family has grown 90 percent of this meal on their own, or it was grown in the community. Furthermore, besides the fact that the family has made this food themselves one can see the vast amount of food their is period. Whether they bought it all or actually did grow it, either way they worked hard in oder to obtain it. By either putting hours and hours into growing the vegetables, or hours and hours into working in order to pay for it, one thing for sure is that it can not be said that the Mendoza family is not hard working. As for being proud, this word can be thought of by looking at the faces of the members of the family. As one can see, many of the members are smiling, which gives the impression that they are happy with what they have accomplished for themselves. Even those who are not smiling, one can see the look of dedication and nationalism on there faces, which also gives the impression of pride. Furthermore, besides the facial expressions of the family members, the clothing is also a symbol of pride amongst this family. All of there outfits, though different in some way, are all related. They are the same fabric and same pattern/color. This is an indication that they are proud of their heritage and they are happy to embrace it. If I was to see this photograph in a magazine as an ad I would most likely interpret it in the same way. I would assume it was an ad for people to tell them that they should start buying locally grown food to help the economy, and the best way to do that is to show how hard working the people are who make this food are, and how proud they are of their heritage, which is exactly what this photograph describes. Now that I have taken the time to focus in on the photo my understanding of it has changed dramatically. Initially I thought it to be some under privileged family, but with closer look I now realize that the family... may not have the amounts of money and resources we have... but appreciate what they have all the same and are proud of it.