2nd Rough Draft

Through the years, many things change and many things stay the same. One example of this that almost everyone should be able to relate to is school. This is a prime example because during the years, there are aspects of school that change, but yet the main idea in education stays the same, meaning that no matter what year it is, or what state you're in, school aim to give the best education possible and are found teaching the important things kids need to know in life. My particular image is of a classroom in the 1940's. There were aspects of the image that I could pick apart and analyze just from looking at it, and then there were more things I learned that related to the image after doing some research. When you look into an image through the eyes of the time period, you look at it a little differently. After accounting for the historical context of the photograph, your perspective as the viewer changes. Once you put the picture in the context of the year and overall situation, more things start to make sense. It usually changes your perception from when you first looked at it, but there might be some things that stay the same as your previous conceptions.

My first overall idea of the picture was that it is a class of children in the olden days in a music class or performance. This image was found under the categories of classrooms, and also children signing. They are looking over to the side at either their teacher or word lyrics. The image didn't have much information given to us with the picture. We were told that the photographer was Robert Lee and that the picture is from October of 1940. Therefore, we are lead to infer what is happening on our own.

When I first looked at this image prior to picking it, I thought it contained a lot of qualities our book holds. Some of the clearly evident ones were dealing with the colors and lighting, vectors of attention and overall idea of what is going on in the picture. The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that all the children are looking to their left, or the right side of the image. As we've learned from Compose, Advocate and Design, the photographer obviously wants us to realize the vectors of attention is directed towards the left with the looks of the children. What is interesting with this image is that the children's attention is all directed to something we can't see. We are left to imagine what they are all looking at.

The overall affect of the image color wise is that it is pretty dark with a light shining down on the kids in the front middle. A thought about the light is that it is shining down on the kids that are fully paying attention, shadowing the boy and girl on the right side that aren't as focused. The photographer might want the focus to be more on the correctly behaved children. Therefore, we feel that behavior is carried out to the audience's perception of the kids. When analyzing the children, many things come up. Overall they look pretty content. Most are smiling or else if they aren't they don't look upset. The little girl in the front on the end is the only one that is distracted and not similarly focused like the rest of the class. If we were to compare the behaviors of these children to the children in a class today, I think there would be a difference in the focus levels. The picture of this class seems to fit the norm of a focused classroom of kids.



The formation of the kids is in a riser sort of fashion. It could alternately be set up for a performance, or like a rehearsal. There is a variety in the boys and girls- they aren't in any sort of alternating pattern or rows. They are dressed like the time period they are in, 1940's. They are dressed in nicer outfits than we would expect for school today. They all look happily focused.



After looking more into the background and history of this image, we can get a deeper feel for what is going on in these children's situations. We are reminded about the war that just ended a couple months before this picture was probably taken. This image was taken in October in 1940, so they were lucky to be back in school.



At this time, the schools were segregated. When I first looked at the image, that didn't even cross my mind, but when re-looking over the image, we see that is indeed the case. As mentioned before, only one girl really looks distracted, expressing that schools and teachers were quite strict in this time period. When you look at the background behind the children it is definitely fitting for the time period. It has a weird pattern that looks as if it were a piece of fabric being used at a background. The background is almost a contrast to the set up of the kids. The background is pretty busy and jumbled where the children are quite orderly and organized. When we think about classrooms these days, we usually picture bright colors and an overall fun aspect.



The darkness of the room correlates with the hard times that just happened during this time period. Their surrounding lives had just gotten out of war, but in the image they are still smiling which is uplifting to the audience knowing that they survived and are pushing through the hard times. After all, youth is a good way to motivated people through seeing their hope. We see that kids can still be happy and learning in this type of environment as well as the type that we are more used to.

When we think about the ethos of this photograph, we find it a bit difficult to understand the story of all the kids because we can't see them talking, but we can go off of their gestures happening when the photo was captured. Most of the kids have their hands folded or behind them, showing a bit of innocence. Their manner of dress can also adhere to the ethos. They look more proper than students today because of their dresses and nice outfits. This helps show the seriousness in school and the style of the time period. Their hand placements could also aid to the seriousness, in that they aren't messing around putting bunny ears on other students, but instead are following the rule of keeping their hands to themselves.

When considering logos, we look at the overall arrangement, the way the arguments fit together to make the whole, and also the patterns. This is like what was discussed earlier with the formation of the kids in the riser format possibly ready for a performance. The arguments fit together to express the overall situation being that these are children at school in the 1940's in what appears to be a music class. The patterns are within the image through the background, the children and the consistent vectors of attention.

Finally, we look at the pathos. we realize that we can't physically know everything about the image. We wish we could study the breathing, singing, verbal communication rather than just still body language. It's almost as if we wish we were able to be standing in the real life scene of the picture being able to take in everything by encountering the situation first hand. But since that can't happen, we are left to our imagination, critical thinking, and interpreting skills to make a story for our images.

When we are given the freedom to examine an image and create a story of our own, it is interesting to see our takes on the image not knowing at all what the photographer wanted us or assumed we would take away from it. We study each aspect of rhetoric terms our book contains and build a strong interpretation on our own, never knowing if it compliments what is the reality of the image or not. This image is relevant to the life of viewers because it lets us revisit a time period and see the changes and similarities that we are familiar with today.

Works Cited

"American Elementary Schools in the 1940's." 1940s Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
.
"Farming in the 1940s." Wessels Living History. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
.
"School Clothes: United States Individual Experiences." Historical Boys Clothing. N.p., 1 July 2008.
Web. 4 Oct. 2009.

Writing Project #1: Rough Draft

Through the years, many things change and many things stay the same. One example of this that almost everyone should be able to relate to is school. This is a prime example because during the years, there are aspects of school that change, but yet the main idea in education stays the same. My particular image is of a classroom in the 1940's. There were aspects of the image that I could pick apart and analyze just from looking at it, and then there were more things I learned that related to the image after doing some research. When you look into an image through the eyes of the time period, you look at it a little differently. It usually changes your perception from when you first looked at it, but there might be some things that stay the same as your previous conceptions.

My first overall idea of the picture was that it is a class of children in the olden days in a music class or performance. They are looking over to the side at either their teacher or word lyrics. The image didn't have much information given to us with the picture. Therefore, we are lead to infer what is happening on our own.

When I first looked at this image prior to picking it, I thought it contained a lot of qualities our book holds. Some of the clearly evident ones were dealing with the colors and lighting, vectors of attention and overall idea of what is going on in the picture. The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that all the children are looking to their left, or the right side of the image. As we've learned from Compose, Advocate and Design, the photographer obviously wants us to realize the vectors of attention is directed towards the left with the looks of the children. What is interesting with this image is that the children's attention is all directed to something we can't see. We are left to imagine what they are all looking at.

The overall affect of the image color wise is that it is pretty dark with a light shining down on the kids in the front middle. A thought about the light is that it is shining down on the kids that are fully paying attention, shadowing the boy and girl on the right side that aren't as focused. The photographer might want the focus to be more on the correctly behaved children. Therefore, we feel that behavior is carried out to the audience's perception of the kids. When analyzing the children, many things come up. Overall they look pretty content. Most are smiling or else if they aren't they don't look upset. The little girl in the front on the end is the only one that is distracted and not similarly focused like the rest of the class. If we were to compare the behaviors of these children to the children in a class today, I think there would be a difference in the focus levels. The picture of this class seems to fit the norm of a focused classroom of kids.





The formation of the kids is in a riser sort of fashion. It could alternately be set up for a performance, or like a rehearsal. There is a variety in the boys and girls- they aren't in any sort of alternating pattern or rows. They are dressed like the time period they are in, 1940's. They are dressed in nicer outfits than we would expect for school today. They all look happily focused.



After looking more into the background and history of this image, we can get a deeper feel for what is going on in these children's situations. We are reminded about the war that just ended a couple months before this picture was probably taken. This image was taken in October in 1940, so they were lucky to be back in school.





At this time, the schools were segregated. When I first looked at the image, that didn't even cross my mind, but when re-looking over the image, we see that is indeed the case. As mentioned before, only one girl really looks distracted, expressing that schools and teachers were quite strict in this time period. When you look at the background behind the children it is definitely fitting for the time period. It has a weird pattern that looks as if it were a piece of fabric being used at a background. The background is almost a contrast to the set up of the kids. The background is pretty busy and jumbled where the children are quite orderly and organized. When we think about classrooms these days, we usually picture bright colors and an overall fun aspect.




The darkness of the room correlates with the hard times that just happened during this time period. Their surrounding lives had just gotten out of war, but in the image they are still smiling which is uplifting to the audience knowing that they survived and are pushing through the hard times. After all, youth is a good way to motivated people through seeing their hope. We see that kids can still be happy and learning in this type of environment as well as the type that we are more used to.

When we think about the ethos of this photograph, we find it a bit difficult to understand the story of all the kids because we can't see them talking, but we can go off of their gestures happening when the photo was captured. Most of the kids have their hands folded or behind them, showing a bit of innocence. Their manner of dress can also adhere to the ethos. They look more proper than students today because of their dresses and nice outfits. This helps show the seriousness in school and the style of the time period.

When considering logos, we look at the overall arrangement, the way the arguments fit together to make the whole, and also the patterns. This is like what was discussed earlier with the formation of the kids in the riser format possibly ready for a performance. The arguments fit together to express the overall situation being that these are children at school in the 1940's in what appears to be a music class. The patterns are within the image through the background, the children and the consistent vectors of attention.

Finally, we look at the pathos. we realize that we can't physically know everything about the image. We wish we could study the breathing, singing, verbal communication rather than just still body language. It's almost as if we wish we were able to be standing in the real life scene of the picture being able to take in everything by encountering the situation first hand. But since that can't happen, we are left to our imagination, critical thinking, and interpreting skills to make a story for our images.

When we are given the freedom to examine an image and create a story of our own, it is interesting to see our takes on the image not knowing at all what the photographer wanted us or assumed we would take away from it. We study each aspect of rhetoric terms our book contains and build a strong interpretation on our own, never knowing if it compliments what is the reality of the image or not.

Statement of Purpose

Everything has a purpose. Whether it be a person, a place, a thing, a word, a picture, there is a reason for it all. After pre-examining our photo and finding out some background information on it, a statement of purpose can now be formed. Since we are making the statement of purpose, it will resemble our own thoughts and could be completely different if done by another person looking at the same photo. Our book defines a statement of purpose as the following, clearer and more concrete…sense of purpose, and it explains your purpose by referring to audience and context…[it] should be detailed and specific enough to guide you through the steps of choosing a medium or mix of media, deciding strategies, and then arranging, producing, and testing what you compose” (40).

The purpose of the picture from my point of view is to show us what a music class group of students looked like in the 40's. It is to show us what life was like during that time period. Choosing school and kids as the subjects to help accomplish that was a wise choice I would say. We all know what schools and kids look like today, but back then we might not be so sure. At this point, we can compare and contrast a group of kids singing in the 1940's to a group of kids singing today.



While comparing and contrasting the two images, there are obvious similarities as well as differences. The formation of the children is quite similar in the whole riser effect. The newer picture seems more colorful and also set in more of a performance situation rather than a classroom. The boys and girls are still mixed, although the more recent photo seems heavy on girls over boys. The vectors of attention differ in the earlier image the teacher was obviously over to the side where in the more recent photo the children are all looking straight forward. I would say the biggest difference is with the expressions on the children's faces. Although from my research the kids in the 1940's picture would be living a life post war, their faces are still bright and shining even more than the kids today! The kids today don't look interested in their performance at all!

The next aspect of a statement of purpose deals with the audience. For everyone's image, the obvious audience will be our classmates and teacher, but every image goes beyond that. For my particular image, the audience would be children, adults that were children during the 40's and teachers. I think all of those people would be able to relate to the situation in the picture. Each audience member will see the image in their own way and their opinions will vary based on their previous knowledge or experience relating to this image.

The final piece to the puzzle to make a statement of purpose is context. The context of this picture is elementary school life during the 1940's. This image shows just one small piece of the whole school life during this time, but it shows a group of students in a music class which is just one example for the whole time period. After some previous research we know that the schools were very structured and that the kids would have just gone through some bad times, but they still look happy and that context within itself speaks for the minds of the children during this time.



When blogging about my picture, I am writing to an audience of my class and teacher and anyone else that may be interested or able to relate to the image. The purpose of what I write is to explain my takes on the context and purpose of the image and the audience can do what it wants from there. I will almost be role playing as if I were the photographer explaining my image as if it were my own.

Pre-Writing Assignment #3

To begin my research on this photograph, I first looked back at what info we were already given. The only bit of historical info to spring off on is that it is from October of 1940. The only other thing we know is that it was found under the categories of children singing and also classroom.

One thing I mentioned in the previous post is that the schools were segregated during this time, and we are proven that fact by looking at the picture and seeing only white children. Schools were similar in the 1940's as they are today. Although this appears to be a music class, I did some research on elementary schools and classes in general during this time period to set the stage for school overall during the 1940's.

The subjects were similar to ours today, but the teachers and classrooms were more formal and strict, different to our fun, colorful elementary school rooms today. Boys and girls played on different playgrounds during recess in most schools. To see all the kids together in this image is nice. They all seem to get along as you don't see anyone fighting. They all look pretty focused on what I assume is the teacher off to the side except for the one little girl. After the war, it was proven that people stayed in school longer to get more of an education than they did before the war.

As far as the clothing worn to school during the 1940s, the children didn't have uniforms but they dressed in nice clothing. The boys often wore clothes that were a little less fancy than a suit and the girls were almost always in dresses.



After learning more about the time period of when this image was taken, you begin to feel more knowledgeable. When you first look at a picture, you usually make up a story as to what it is and you form an opinion on it. But once you research it and know more about the time period of the picture and about the subjects in the picture, your views may change from your preconceived ideas. For me and this image, I feel more connected to the children knowing what they have just gone through with the war and I feel sympathetic towards them but also heart warmed to still see smiles on their faces.

Works Cited

"American Elementary Schools in the 1940's." 1940s Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
.
"Farming in the 1940s." Wessels Living History. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
.
"School Clothes: United States Individual Experiences." Historical Boys Clothing. N.p., 1 July 2008.
Web. 4 Oct. 2009. .

2nd Document Post

When taking a more in depth look at the picture chosen, other factors to consider are thoughts about the building and the lives of the children past this image, yet still thinking about the terms from our text such as vectors of attention and framing/cropping.

The first question to touch on is how are the children arranged? When I think back on my days in elementary school, assuming that is where this picture was taken, the structural stairs we stood on called risers come to mind. The children in this picture look semi arranged in what could be a riser structure. The shorter kids are mainly in front and it seems to be increasing with height has you move through the picture. It is definitely not as structured as one would assume for a performance, but for a practice during class, which is what I infer this picture to be, it works. There are some kids hidden but you can see a feature from all of them. Another piece with how the children are arranged is that there is no certain pattern with the genders. Boys are standing by boys and girls and vice versa. The children don't show any sense of bothersome towards their arrangement in this photo. The only child that appears to be distracted perhaps by another student is the little girl in front.

I feel like the vectors of attention and ethos kind of go hand in hand when examining photography. The vectors of attention pursue what the photographer wants the audience to see in the picture, and ethos as we know are what the audience sees in you. I touched a lot on vectors of attention in my last post, but when connecting the term with ethos, I think the audience would definitely be able to understand what the focus is to be. Without knowing the whole story on the image, the logos are kind of up in the air. We are able to create our own thoughts as to the reason for the structure and what argument it portrays. After considering the picture a few more times, I'm starting to wonder if the singing is actually taking place in a performance situation. The children all have nice little outfits on and the backdrop on the wall looks like it could have been used to set the stage in a classroom setting. The image at the top of tis blog was added because it shows what a classroom looks like during this time to help picture what the rest of the room may look like that they are in. Next, we consider the pathos. As an audience member, I appreciate being able to see this image as it expands my knowledge or feel for the 1940's. After a little more research, it made me also notice that there are only white students in the image.

Other terms from our text that are incorporated in the image's makeup are things like lighting and coloration, including hue, saturation, and brightness. The image is overall pretty dark, with just the white of the teeth shining through. The colors aren't bright, but there are colors included. I think the colors and brightness levels in images really set the overall tone. Something I found kind of interesting is that I picked an image that was color when in previous blogs I touched on how black and white images are my favorite. I decided that color would be easier to examine more with what the colors are doing for the image.