Lauterbach 1 Rachel Lauterbach Dr.

Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric, Section 09 3 October 2013 The Fire Hose

A small black and white image in a simple frame shows three African American teenagers huddled together against a wall, one of them being sprayed directly in the back by what can be inferred to be a fire hose. The photo was taken in Birmingham, Alabama by Charles Moore in May 1963 during the Civil Rights Movement. Moore took many photos on this day when a particular protest escalated quickly with police using fire hoses and dogs as weapons against the African American protesters, who were acting without weapons and non-violently. This photo and others taken this day were published in Life Magazine and were shown widely across the country in 1963; the images helped the public recognize the mistreatment of the African-Americans. Charles Moore was able to sway the opinion of the American public through the rhetorical strategies used in his images, particularly a use of emotion through the photos rhetorical situation, and techniques of cropping and contrast in order to create a focal point, and lastly a specific perspective that altogether emphasize the mistreatment of the AfricanAmericans. A large reason that this image was so effective was the use of emotion, both in the victims and also the emotion it draws out of the viewer as a result. . By displaying the emotions of the victims, the viewers feel strong emotions in response, an ancient technique defined by the Greek as pathos which is the effect of the speech on the audience (Jones). The teens have a body-language that shows that they feel attacked, in pain, and powerless. One man is being

Lauterbach 2 directly his in the back, the other is protecting the girl and covering his face, and the girls face is visible and she looks upset and frightened. Through their faces and body language, the audience can figure out that these people are being attacked In this case, the medium is a photo but it still has a strong effect on the audiences emotions. When this and other photos from the event where published, it drew a sense of rage, sadness, or pity from many viewers. By seeing young people being treated in such an inhumane way, people felt strongly that this was not right and realized that there needed to be changes made. The realistic quality of the photos made these emotions strong in the viewers. The ability of the photos to effect the viewers and their emotions is part of the rhetorical situation of the photos. A rhetorical situation is a natural context of persons, events, objects, relations, and an exigence which strongly invites utterance (Bitzer 5). Bitzer also goes on to describe the type of rhetoric in these situations as pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself; it functions ultimately to produce action or change in the world (Bitzer 3-4). In the case of these photos, the situation was the unjust events of the Civil Rights that were occurring across the country. Charles Moore was a white man, yet he did not agree with the treatment of blacks at the time. He saw the situation that was occurring and knew that something had to be done. He used his photos as a rhetorical device to help produce a change that he wanted to occur. The quality of his photos and his use of techniques made them effective and helped create a change. The photo is a close up shot showing only the three pinned against the wall by the spray; the fire hose and the people who are aiming the hose at them are cropped out and remain unknown to viewers. Even though there was probably a lot of other action surrounding them, the photographer chose to single out just these three in order to give the viewer a close look at their

Lauterbach 3 emotions. How a photographer choses to frame or crop an image has a large impact on the meaning of the image; in The Rhetoric of the Frame, Lancioni says that reframing is often used to provide close-ups of individuals barely noticeable in the original photograph, thus inviting viewers to question why this is so (Lancioni 106). By cropping out everything else except the non-descript building that provides a background, our eyes focus solely on the three victims and the hose that is impacting them, creating a strong focal point of the image where Moore intended viewers to focus on. This focus allows the viewer to pay more attention to the people and their emotions and body language, which helps the reader connect to the people more than it would if the image included other people action that was going on around them. Another technique used by the photographer to create this focal point is contrast. Contrast can add to the rhetoric of a photo by making it stand out more to its audience and helps the photo have a greater impact on its viewers. Although it was possible to create color photographs at the time, Moore chose to leave the image as black and white. As a result the photo has strong contrast between the people, building, and fire hose. The three teens are dark skinned and two of the three are dressed in all dark colors, with the third wearing dark pants and a slightly lighter shirt. Overall, the subjects are much darker than the stark building they are against, naturally drawing the viewer to focus on them as opposed to the background. Also, the spray of the hose is one of the lightest and whitest aspects of the image. Not only does this draw attention to it, it also is symbolic. It can be inferred that the people directing the hose towards the blacks was a group of white men based on the events at the time and setting of the photo. The spray can therefore be symbolic of the whites and the oppressive power they were using over the African-Americans. The contrast and varying color values strengthen the meaning and impact of the image both

Lauterbach 4 visually, by strengthening the focal point, but also symbolically, by creating a symbol of the whites power over the blacks and their struggle to break free from it. Like contrast and cropping, the photographer also chose a particular perspective for the photo that allows it to make the most effective impact on the viewers. Moore shot the photos on this day in Birmingham in a way that makes it seem as if the viewers themselves were there that day. This technique, which is a feature of photos that allows them to give witness to the past as viewed by a photographer, was used by Moore so viewers could better sympathize with the African-Americans (Lancioni 106). He took the shots close up and put himself in the midst of the protest and violence that occurred that day. The photograph is zoomed closely enough that we can make out the faces of the victims, which makes viewers feel as though they are standing within a few feet of this event, rather than looking at a photo of it happening fifty years ago. If a different perspective or angle would have been used, the meaning of the photograph would be changed drastically. This perspective allows for the viewers to feel like they are watching this horrible event happen, which makes them feel pity and sadness for the African Americans that are being victimized. These photos had an important impact on history. This photo in particular was effective to the intended audience because Moore used cropping, contrast, and a specific perspective to showcase the emotion of the situation, which effectively stirred strong emotions in the viewers. A senator at the time said these photos were so effective that they helped to spur the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Sullivan). Moore was successful because he was able to find a rhetorical situation and effectively speak to his intended audience to coerce them to act on their emotion to create the desired change. Not only did these photos have an effect in the past, they can still have an effect on viewers today. We can look at the photos from our own perspective

Lauterbach 5 and see when we have mistreated others and acted superior to others in ways similar to the way the whites mistreated blacks for many years. All people have been on both sides of the hose throughout our lives and we should use this photo as inspiration to stop victimizing others and choose to be like Moore and inspire positive change in the world and the way we treat others.

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Works Cited Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." Penn State University Press : Rpt. in Philosophy & Rhetoric. 1st ed. Vol. 1. : JSTOR, 1968. 1-14. Print. Jones, John. "Viz." Visualizing Rhetoric. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. Lancioni, Judith. "The Rhetoric of the Frame, Revisioning Archival Photographs in the Civil War." 1996. 105-17. Print. Sullivan, Patricia. "Charles Moore, 79, Dies; Photographed Civil Rights Violence." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.