Critically analyze how your image produces meaning for a western audience and how it stages an encounter between those in the west and those elsewhere.

by ellynovick1

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Photography has the power to raise awareness about the big issues surrounding these countries, but what message actually gets conveyed back to us?

Demi Moore at a visit to St Damien’s children’s hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

When studying a photograph of Demi Moore, which was presented in The Telegraph from her visit to St Damien’s children’s hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, it was interesting to see how photography was used to send a specific message from a Westernized voice.

The body posture within the photograph is key as it outlines the bond between the two and draws in the viewer. In the photograph she is positioned to be cradling the child, with her hand over the child ‘s face and around their waist. This projects a maternal and almost biblical relationship between the two. It is also interesting how only her face is in view and the child’s is hidden, potentially illustrating that the main focus is the celebrity character and the child is merely a prop. The way in which her hand covers the child’s face is interesting as it could be interpreted to be more of a message of caring for the global issue of the developing world. Her head is delicately tilted over the child’s face as she stares down portraying a companionate motherly role.

The composition of the photograph projects a subtle meaning of the west caring for the developing world. The way in which the background is formed of neutral colouring and tiled floors conveys a connection between Demi Moore as she is seen wearing non-designer clothing and similar a coloured outfit; almost merging the two together making the message that we’re one. This is also illustrated in the way the child is wrapped around her body, combing the two as one body.

The Great Farini with Krao ‘Missing Link’ 1880’s, Maxwell (1999), p.56

The image here of Demi Moore shares a great resemblance with early anthropological photography. Anne Maxwell demonstrates the way in which photography can be used as an anthropological document that allows people to see cultures outside our centralised westernised bubble. One of the most powerful elements to the technology of photography is the power it has through people’s interpretations on the message it tries to convey. The photograph presented in his with the Great Farni and Krao, illuminates the contrast in power between the strong white male and the weak feral like child wrapped around him. “Krao was photographed with Farini, highlighting the immense gulf between the tiny, animal-like creature from Laos and the handsome white gentleman to whom she clung” (Maxwell, 1999; 55)

Ellen, South Australian Aboriginal, 1870, Maxwell (1999), p43

“Both failed to take colonized peoples’ feelings into account, or to respect their privacy, in fact, many colonized people were embarrassed by nudity and frightened by cameras” (Maxwell, 1999; 41)

In highlight of the Maxwell text and studying the image of Demi Moore, it is now clear to me what an impact photography can have on the meaning it is trying to convey across to its viewer. Photography has the power to portray different cultures in a heriarchical structure that is produced by the West. Leaving the non-European cultures represented as helpless and less evolved. The way in which there is an extra hand placed onto the child’s malnourished back, suggests that we, as the superior, need to help. The photograph which I have studies shows a clear representation from a Western superior artist, illustrating a clear division of racial power.