Friday, February 15, 2008

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think I am drawn to this photograph because I am a big chicken when it comes to street photography – or bus photography in this case! This image could be placed in Barrett’s explanatory category since it deals “with subject matter that is specific to a particular time and place and that can be dated by visual evidence within the photograph.” This photo also has an ethically evaluative quality to it as the viewer considers whether or not the photographer is “praising or condemning aspects of society.” While the elderly woman is in the center of the photograph right across the isle from the photographer there are barriers between her and the viewer. Her scarf, sunglasses, buttoned sweater, handbag, gaze and clenched fist isolate and enclose her. She is visually compartmentalized by the poles, railing, metal trim on the seat and the tire well (?) her arm rests on. This could be a statement on the life of elderly women – perhaps sex, age and socio-economic status in society have contained, restricted and marginalized them.