I have been assigned an image analysis for my writing class.  This is a copy of the first draft handed in last Wednesday.  The assignment is as follows:

 Choose an image and write an analytical response to it. This should include description of the image…. Your interpretation of it. Why you think the painter/photographer/ad person chose certain elements of the image or the image itself. What does it say – are there cultural factors to consider? What impact is it striving for in your opinion/ What factor does audience play here? Motive of the creator?

I have hit a road block.  I feel too much like I am putting words in the photographer's mouth (so to say).  I feel like the image is so powerful and so relevant to that I am overstating the point.  It's hard to say, but I just feel like the image stands for itself, and my words only serve to complicate the matter.  

 If anyone has any suggestions or tips to improve what I have going here it would be much appreciated.  Here is the image:

Shards of wood and twisted metal cover the ground in a random display of nature’s strength.  A boy, no older than 10, stares blankly at an artifact he has arbitrarily selected amongst the debris, searching for anything to take his mind off of the devastation.  His gaze is fixated on the object in a desperate attempt to escape reality.  A woman approaches him with a cautious face.  Her body language and proximity to the boy suggests blood relation.  Perhaps, though, she simply recognized the young one as being alone and it was her motherly instincts that compelled her to go the child’s side.  However, her face portrays a level of awestricken perplexity that can only be attributed to the sheer gravity of the situation.  What is there to say at a time like this? Can words alone suffice to put an event like this in perspective?

            Anyone viewing this photo with even a sliver of knowledge of current events knows within moments the image’s origin.  The horrific events taking place over the past weekend in Japan have produced many captivating photos and videos, but this one, found on a reuters.com slideshow titled “Images of the Week,” stood out not only because of the wreckage of the wave, but because of the compelling story that breathes through its pixels. 

The caption of the photo reads rather plainly, “A boy looks at an award certificate that he found among debris after an earthquake and tsunami struck Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan March 13, 2011.”  The photographer clearly had a greater vision when taking this photo.  Like all artists, he or she deliberately chose the subjects to convey a message to an audience, which, in this case, happens to be the entire world. 

The photo contains an implicit dialogue between its two subjects that conveys dynamics of a mother hoping to reassure her child.  As a reader from the West, I find myself drawing conclusions about the strength of Japanese people, that even during a time of extreme duress, in a situation beckoning one’s nerves to unravel, this woman is there for her son.  Perhaps it is because my memory is scarred with horrific images of the chaos that ensued after Hurricane Katrina thrashed the Gulf Coast that I place so much emphasis on this point, but the one element not apparent in this photo is chaos.  The most impressive thing about the people in this photo is that even though they certainly share a common grief, there is an underlying sense that their togetherness is all that matters. 

             Sometimes as humans we fail to fully appreciate the impact that natural disasters have on the lives of people who experience them.  Next to personal accounts seen or read in the news, photos are often the only way for those not directly involved to validate the legitimacy of nature’s force.  Putting faces to such tragedies often hits us on a much more intimate level, as if these people become lenses for what it would be like to actually experience such an event. 

In the days and weeks following the disaster in Japan, I was astounded by the courageous response of the Japanese people during a time of such turmoil.  I thought back to the turmoil that characterized the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, both in the immediate relief efforts and prolonged political issues that still plague the region today.  What sets our societies apart?  We are both ‘developed’ nations; what was it that disabled the American people from displaying the same sense of order after Katrina?

Natural disasters, though often tragic, are typically events that force people to come together in the face of adversity.  They serve a purpose in our world; that is to remind us that we are all on this planet together, seeking the same peace, prosperity, and longevity of life.  The Japanese people are living proof.  Their response to this disaster serves as inspiration the rest of the world, a courageous illustration of togetherness, not lost in translation.