A
PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS
This photograph, taken from the
Monday edition of the Daily Telegraph 17th March, represents collective
power and also shows the physical power of the masses.
The photograph has been cropped
so as to focus on a smaller area than the original and this technique allows
the crowd of soldiers to seem very large, a collective mass, or gathering of
power, even though it may have only been a group of a few hundred.
The foreground
of the photo is focused, whereas towards the center of the photograph the
soldiers become blurry and the soldiers in the background are totally indefinable.
This adds to the effect of the cropping technique as it makes the masses of the
soldiers seem endless, their ranks going off into the distance, a powerful
collective mass of thousands.
The vector lines
of the soldiers’ weapons draw the viewer’s eyes down to the soldiers,
the guns themselves represent power, as power can be achieved through
violence. The lone soldier rising above the others, holding his gun
horizontally is very eye-catching as it can be viewed as an interruption to the
downward flowing vector lines, displaying the fact that even though power has been
achieved through an army, this collective power is also made up of physical
power, the physical power of each individual soldier.
The collective power of the
soldiers is also represented through the appearance of the soldiers. As
soldiers they have the same uniforms, weapons and haircuts so in a photograph
of this size the similarity in appearance is emphasized, leading the viewer to
see this mass of soldiers as almost one entity. Their collective
power is made up of each individual’s physical power, but in this
process they have lost their individuality.
