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2024, “On the Outside Looking In?”
The way we use language significantly impacts how we see things, both figuratively and literally. Do you see the woman’s gesture here as a sign of aggression or perhaps even celebration? The photo’s title echoes mainstream media coverage of these events at the time, but would the way you see this image change if the title used ‘uprising’ or ‘civil disturbance’ rather than ‘riot’? Would her gesture look to you, instead, like despair or defeat?Label
2022, Whose America?
The 1992 Los Angeles riots occurred after a jury acquitted four white police officers of using excessive force in the arrest and beating of African American Rodney King. Those who felt the judicial system should have held the officers responsible were outraged, and as a result, thousands of people rioted over six days. The focal point of this photograph is a woman in a white shirt with her hands over her head looking down a chaotic street. Her back is turned to us. By framing the photograph in this manner, Turnley invites us to experience what is happening from her point of view. Do her raised hands display triumph, dismay, or something else?
Photojournalism differs from paintings or prints. It focuses on everyday people’s spontaneous reactions, as opposed to paintings like 30 Cents an Hour, which arguably reveal the artist’s emotional response to the subject.
Text by Samara I. Harper and Elliot Mehren, Washburn students