The comic strip that I chose is from the “A Softer World” archive. This comic strip is a three-panel comic strip that, instead of having three different pictures for each panel, has one picture cut into three panels. This is very interesting in that with each panel, the audience in introduced to more detail and more emotion. When looking at each panel separately, without influence from the next one, you can build on thoughts and ideas of what the comic strip is trying to express.
The first panel reads “I’d like to read a story in the newspaper that ends with…” and only has a dark greenish brown background and a small triangle of black in the lower right corner. When looking at this panel alone, you cannot see that this panel is actually the grass of the overall panel. The second panel reads “but she was just having a bad dream,” This panel introduces a subject, “she” and gives more detail to the picture, we now see black and white in the lower portions of the panels, but it is still not evident to what this might be. The final panel reads “really she’s okay.” I would say that this panel is the one that really brings understanding to the strip. You can now see that the figure of color is a car and there are bodies introduced. These bodies are hugging very tightly, showing an obvious connection.
While looking at this comic strip emotions were definitely invoked. The text argues that the author wishes “she” was okay and that this happening that the author refers to was “just a dream”. The author does not express what the happening is, but as an audience we can develop our ideas of what it may be. I have a personal experience with a cousin of mine passing away after being hit by a drunk driver. Seeing the car in the lower panels of this comic strip and the context of the text made me think of a car accident, that the audience wishes the car accident was just a dream. You can also infer from this comic strip that “she”, the subject that the author mentions, was either hurt very badly or passed away from this happening. Similarly to the analysis of photographs, I felt a strong sense of pathos from this comic strip. There is the pathos of what the words, forming a story, are telling us and the obvious pathos from the two bodies hugging dearly.
I would say that the way this comic strip was presented is very effective. The typewriting in the comic strip is like the “thoughts” that are going through the authors mind and the picture almost a “dream” of what she wishes she could do: hug her friend/loved one tightly and have everything be ok.
This writing project challenged me and took quite a bit of effort in making. While I have taken classes that required I analyze poems, novels and plays, this writing project was a whole new experience for me. Photography, before this project, was more of just a visual recording of memories that I have made with friends and family. It was not until after completing this project did I realize how much really went into photography and how interesting it can be to analyze. At first, it was very difficult for me to talk about “key technical elements” when looking at a photograph. I am a very structured person that prefers facts over opinion. I like to learn concrete concepts and then develop my ideas around them. This analytical project made this very hard for me to do. There were not many “concrete concepts” to analyzing photographs. There definitely were terms and elements that went into analyzing the photograph, but ideas and opinions could definitely change based on which of these terms and concepts you used. There was definitely a contrast between what ideas I developed from a picture and what the person next to me todeveloped from a picture. This project took a lot of creativity for me. Honestly, I do not think I could have completed this project with the level of understanding and confidence as I have without our textbook, Compose Design Advocate. This book gave me some of the concrete terms that I needed. I also found that class discussions really helped me. Our class contains some of the brightest University of Nebraska-Lincoln Honors Student I know! With all of us incorporating our interpretations and ideas behind analyzing photographs it brought a unique level of mutual understanding. It was like learning another language to me, I knew the words and sort of how they should be used, but I did not fully understand how to use these terms and analyze my photograph until I practiced with others. I definitely saw a level of growth in my writing style and confidence during this project.
My paper has evolved quite a bit since day one! I, at first, was a little confused as to what a photograph’s argument could actually involve. I came from many different angles: analyzing pathos in the baby, analyzing both the argument that could exist in the photograph and the argument that may exist from the photographer. I finally landed on what I feel is a powerful argument from this photograph: that “through technical elements such as natural lighting, cropping, framing and vectors of attention this photograph develops pathos that argues the dramatic difference in lifestyle that these orphan children live compared to average American children.”
I did not make too many major changes in my essay between my first and second draft. Many of the changes that I made contributed to presenting my essay more clearly to the audience. This included addressing which photograph my essay pertained to (by suggesting where the audience should look to find my photograph), clearing up some wording issues that may come off confusing to the audience, making my argument more precise and detailed (adding in the "differences" that I suggested in my original argument), reorganizing paragraphs (four and five) and just tweaking my essay to better fit my overall argument. I feel that having peer reviews really helped me work out minor problems that my essay had. These reviews offered great guidance of things to look at.
Overall, I can say with full confidence that I put my all into this paper and am very pleased with how it has developed.
In the center of Africa, just below the equator, is the country known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills”: Rwanda. This country is most known for the tragic genocide that its citizens endured in 1994. Rwanda’s population was ethnically split at this time around 65 percent Hutu and 35 percent Tutsi, two tribes that lived in harmony many years ago. After trouble started between the two tribes, things only went downhill. This genocide was very well planned, with the goal in mind to eliminate Tutsi citizens from Rwanda. Checkpoints were set up all over the country to help find every person whose identification card labeled them as a member of the Tutsi tribe. Men were killed on the spot, women sentenced to sexual violence, and children were forced to become part of the Hutu militia. Even Hutus that were associated with any Tutsi tribe member were not safe from the hands of the Hutu militia. This time period was violent and devastating, and led to many families being torn apart.
Besides enduring the horrors of the 1994 genocide, the citizens of Rwanda have had to be strong in yet another horror- the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Rwanda is on the low end of the underdeveloped countries list and therefore does not have adequate healthcare to deal with this complicated and deadly disease. An example of this underdeveloped healthcare is in Rwanda’s child mortality rate: in Rwanda- 1 in 5 children die before their fifth birthday. While in the United States being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS can be very devastating, we still have the means to help fight it and keep the patient alive. In Rwanda, HIV/AIDS is almost a death sentence. Most Rwandans cannot afford care, or in some places cannot even find it. After these victims of HIV/AIDS pass away, many children are left orphaned. Over 600,000 children were orphaned in 2001 due to this epidemic.
With the thousands of children left orphaned after the genocide and the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, a place was needed for these children to continue their lives. That is when the project and gallery that my photograph belongs to,“Through the Eyes of Children”,was born. After experiencing the horrors of the 1994 genocide herself, Rosamond Carr helped start the Imbabizi Orphanage. She has dedicated her life to helping these children continue their lives despite their hardships. Being inspired by Ms. Carr’s dedication and charity, in 2000 David Jiranek came up with the idea of the project “Through the Eyes of Children”. At first, the orphan children were simply given disposable cameras to take pictures of things close to them - themselves, their friends, and their country - to be displayed on their walls or in picture books. A year later, the U.S Embassy helped take this project to new heights: they offered the children a place to display their work and earn money to help their education. This is now what the project is all about: helping these orphans.
Most Americans are aware of the Rwandan genocide and the many victims that lost their lives. However, there is another class of victims that can be forgotten from this event: the orphan children that were left behind. The untitled photograph by Devota (immediately above) helps bring these forgotten orphan children to the minds of the world. It exposes the environment in which these orphans live and the emotions that they feel. Through technical elements such as natural lighting, cropping, framing and vectors of attention this photograph develops pathos that argues the dramatic difference in lifestyle that these orphan children live compared to average American children.
Analyzing this photograph in terms of coloration and vectors of attention, it is recognized that the baby’s vest, the gasoline can, and the blanket make a makeshift “triangle of color” against the dull colors of the soil, wood, and corn husks. This keeps your eyes in lower right vicinity of the photograph. This untitled photograph also uses natural lighting; making the photo more realistic, as if the viewer is standing right there, in the muddy Rwandan soil. There are natural spots of sun and shade, bringing random variations of brightness throughout the picture. When first looking at the untitled picture, your attention is drawn to the crying baby's face, cornhusks, part of a wooden beam and an empty gasoline can, the lighted areas of the photograph. Looking further into discovering the main vector of attention of this photograph, we bring these two concepts of lighting and coloration together: your eyes wander from the baby to the baby’s surroundings to the “triangle of color” and then back to the baby. This leads the viewer to discover aspects of the baby, as well as aspects of his environment. The baby overlaps as a vector of attention in both the color scheme and the lighting. I feel that while there is not a formal framing, this acts as a form of natural framing for this picture. While the baby is not literally the “center of attention”, these technical elements around him help frame him as the center of attention.
Along with an established vector of attention via lighting and coloration, cropping is another important technical element in this photograph. The photograph is cropped in such a way to emphasize the baby and his surroundings. To the right we can see what looks like to be a pant leg, imply that the photographer took this picture on more of a personal level, kneeling down on the same level as the baby. This, as well as the baby’s attention pointed directly at the audience draws us in and allows us to become part of the picture instead of just observing. This technique helps deepen pathos in the overall picture. We can feel this baby’s need for comfort, its sorrow. This is an obvious appeal to pathos that this photograph presents. This photograph definitely tries to evoke emotions and create an emotional connection between the baby in this photograph and the audience. The obvious pathos in the photograph expresses emotions that we as audience members know and have felt ourselves. This connection helps the audience put themselves in the crying baby’s situation.
Once we have developed a sense of pathos for the photograph, we can return to the main argument. From the lives that most of us live, we know that this environment is not a good environment for such a small child to be living in. We can develop sympathy for the baby from this. The nests of blankets that serve as this baby’s “play pen” are dirty and torn. The baby’s clothing is also not in the best shape, and only consists of a vest: no diaper, no pants, and no shoes. Most babies also usually are not set to play in the dirt next to pieces of old wood and gasoline cans. We are made aware of the kind of environment that the children of Rwanda, as young as the baby in this picture, live their lives in. This makes us want to reach out and help them, give them a clean place with toys to play in. The baby is also not happy, but instead is sorrowful and upset (this displays obvious pathos, discussed earlier). It makes the audience wonder where the baby’s parents are, where his comfort will come from. From the tragedies that Rwanda has suffered, it can be assumed that this little boy may have lost his parents from the HIV/AIDS epidemic and can act as a “stand in” for the thousands of children that lost their parents during the 1994 genocide. Adding on to the sympathy that can be developed from this photograph, some of the audience may even relate to this child and have experienced loneliness, abandonment, and/or poverty. This also brings up a sense of empathy that can be incorporated into the photograph. Those who have experienced what this child is going through can relate on a more personal level and may want to reach out and help more. Overall, this is the main argument of this photograph- while giving the audience insight of what these children go through it demands sympathy and encourages help from those who can relate empathetically and sympathetically to this child.
Overall, I deeply feel that the argument of this photo is a very important one. I believe that the photographer wanted others that look at this picture to think of the children of Rwanda and remember all of the hard times that these children and their families have gone through, and are still enduring. The photographer wanted the audience looking at this photograph to sympathize and understand the difference in lifestyle that these children live, be grateful for what they have, and give what they can.
Works Cited
Information from these sites contributed to the making of my essay
Besides enduring the horrors of the 1994 genocide, the citizens of Rwanda have had to be strong in yet another horror- the epidemic of 
Most Americans are aware of the Rwandan 