Malaysia. Indigenous people plant hill rice in ash enriched soil. 1996.

Credit: Stuart Franklin, 1997, Magnum Photos

Caption: Malaysia. Indigenous people plant hill rice in ash enriched soil. 1996.

I had a really difficult time picking just one of the images from the Magnum Photo collection.  I actually downloaded three - it could have been more - and told myself that I had to pick just one at some point.  I then rewrote the above credit and caption three times before I really picked just one.  The three that I downloaded had some elements in common: black and white, sparse landscapes, people trying to make a living off the land.  With such strong commonalities in all the pictures I downloaded, one might ask how I picked just one. Well, this image is the most extreme depiction of the common themes. 

I will use the five elements - "the thing itself," "the detail," "the frame," "time," and "vantage point" - that John Szarkowski outlines in The Photographer's Eye to further my analysis of the image (as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010).  "The thing itself" or the image captured as a whole caught my attention as all of the individuals in this image are picking their way through this bare, rough landscape in order to feed themselves and I assume make a meager amount of money off the excess (Szarkowski as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010).  The picture for me is beautiful in its fierceness of both survival and earth.  The uprooted and burned trees fight against the planting of the seed in the ground, but the resolute bodies just keep working. Although a still image, I imagine the bodies remain hunkered down and just continue their movement toward survival.  The image's "the detail" or complete story is the planting of seed along the hillside (Szarkowski as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010).  The image is just a piece of that event.

Of the five elements that Szarkowski claims are always a part of photos, my favorite is "the frame" or the attention grabber in the image (as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010). In all three of the photos that I downloaded, there was a spot that drew my attention. The photo selected contained my favorite one.  The individual planting in the front stands smack in the middle of the destruction, as if s/he is not fighting against the temperament of nature.  Although the figure's position in the photo helps the prominence given, the white hat and shirt stand out against the dark background and aid in drawing the view's eye to the figure.  This figure stands out, for me, to the point that I almost did not notice the other figures in the picture.    

The last two elements are a bit more technical.  First, the "vantage point" from which the image is taken adds to the affect as the photographer was clearly on top of the hillside on which the individuals are working (Szarkowski as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010). This particular viewpoint places distance between the audience and the scene.  If the photographer was next to any of the planters then the viewer and photographer would seem intimately connected to the beauty in the image, but as it is- the photographer/viewer are distanced from the activity.  Almost as if the audience for this would be Westernized individuals or upper class members of the same society, who already would feel disconnected from the emotions and scene. 

Second, "time," the segment of time covered and length of time it took to capture the image, is difficult to quantify for this picture (Szarkowski as cited in Ritzenthaler, Vogt-O'Connor, Zinkham, Carnell, & Peterson, 2010).  The information provided says the image took place in the year of 1996, but no month or day are available.  Similar to the "the detail," this image is a piece of time, so it can be assumed that the figures continued to plant.  The time required to capture the image would not be lengthy due to the modern date of the image captured, but I am not sure the specific amount of time. The year the image was taken versus the year it was published does show a gap of time, but there is no way to know why.

Of the three images that I downloaded, this one truly is my favorite.  The landscape juxtaposed with human activity is sublime in its show of nature's power.  The elements provided by Szarkowski helped me to apply a level of analysis that allowed the breaking apart of the image to truly value it for its show of magnificence and survival. The figure at the center, in my mind, continues to fight against the earth for existence.