I had not seen this image for some time and it is surprising the emotion that it envokes even with the passing of many years. One thing that I notice about it is the size of the plane in comparison with the building. The plane looks almost like a toy which makes the destruction that happened hard to believe.

It could be seen symbolically as the insignificant group of radicals going after the stolid giant of America represented by a towering building. I doubt the photographer had time to think about that, but the image could be read in this symbolic way.

Looking at the picture with hindsight, I see the end of an era- the end of innocence and the feeling of impenetrability which had covered America for decades. Probably not since the McCarthy era did Americans have their civil liberties quashed as they did after 9/11. The government began to spy on citizens in order to prevent this atrocity from ever happening again. Security quadrupled and now old people have to remove their orthopaedic shoes before going through metal detectors when they want to fly. People have their name on 'no fly lists' sometimes in error.

The airline delays and inconveniences are just one example of consequences of the 9/11 attack. The United States got retribution on the attackers by starting a war on Iraq--you'd have to ask the President for his rationale on choosing Iraq rather than attacking where the terrorists came from, but that is a whole 'nother political discussion.

If we could follow the trickle down effects of the war we'd probably ultimately find a child in a rural school built by railroad tracks which shakes when the trains rumble past. The government has found other uses for our tax money than to provide proper education for the children who are the future of the country.

The image shows a tiny plane about to impact a towering building, but the story is much more than the image shows. It doesn't show the long term effects and it doesn't show the near term effects of families losing their loved ones, or the personal decision that some had to make--to stay in the building and burn to death or to jump. It doesn't show the final phone messages that were left when people in the building knew their death was imminent and wanted to leave final words for their loved ones. It doesn't show the effects on people left behind or the effects on the firefighters and other rescue personnel who saw the destruction close up.

The hate and desperation behind the acts is something that is not supposed to be felt here in America. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We take the poor and hungry to live on our streets paved with gold. We are supposed to be immune from terrorist acts which happen in other parts of the world almost as a matter of course. I think the affront woke us up and I am sorry to be awake. I liked America when we lived in innocence. . . and some would say ignorance.

Picture

I chose this picture of the dead soldier by Mathew Brady because it is striking how death equalizes us all. This is a young man who should have his whole life ahead of him, instead he is a body on the field. He does not appear wounded. If it was not for the uncomfortable position he is in he might be asleep.
I looked Mathew Brady up on the internet and found that he was notorious for taking credit for others' photographic work AND for moving bodies into a position which might have greater viewer impact. He would also place props in the picture for more impact. I believe that he sometimes would pose a Confederate soldier with Union weapons. I was told to look closely at the canteens that are with the soldier. The one in his bag is of one type and the one on the ground is a totally different shape. Perhaps that is an example of mixed props.
The image made me stop and think how short and violent life can be and I suppose the impact is the purpose of Brady's posing his subjects. I don't think that it can be called documentary photography if he posed his subjects with props for more effect. You could call it portrait photography. Documentary photography is supposed to tell some truth, part of the truth told in Brady's images is manufactured for maximum benefit rather than the reality of the situation as he came upon it.
My husband, who was a photojournalist, and I had a discussion about the posing of the subjects and whether if they were posed it was TRUE documentation. In my opinion if you are documenting the aging process (for example) and you photograph a person over a number of years in the same pose you are documenting THEIR aging process (granted not the aging process in general). But Brady's image is completely manufactured as the soldier has no input into whether he wanted to be photographed in this bunker or where he lay originally. I'd be interested to get feedback about the idea whether posed subjects can be documentary work or whether the image has to be spontaneously captured to be truly documentary.

Project ideas

I did my blackboard post on lack of female leaders in the Catholic Church. I feel strongly about that issue only becuase of its inherent unfairness. I do not attend Catholic Church or any other for that matter so it does not personally affect me. If they had female priests I doubt very much I would return. There is so much corruption in the history of the church that I find it difficult to be a supporter.

The other issue that I am really interested in is how disability affects one's identity. This is an unresearched thought, but it seems to me men have a more difficult time adjusting to disability, even aging, than women do. That may be a stereotype that I have bought into, but it seems like men bemoan the diminishing of their former strenght. Maybe women never used their physical strength as much so the loss of it is less jarring. So given that my father who is 76 and my husband who is 53 both mention the things that they 'USED to be able to do with ease and now it's so much harder' I can't imagine that men who suffer a physical disability through accident or war would not have a hard time reconfiguring their identity in light of their gender.

The other issue I am interested is female poverty. I think there are statistics which back up that there are more females in poverty than there are men in poverty. Many times women are single mothers and have the added responsibility of providing for their children.

Those are my ideas. I am happy for any feedback on any or all of them.