Image Analysis

The photo that I chose to analyze for this assignment is this photo is from the recent Black Lives Matter Protests. I have seen countless photos from these protests, from the US to places like Asia and Europe. Most of the images I researched are very powerful, but I believe that this one is the most meaningful photo I could find to analyze.

I love this photo for analysis for a lot of reasons. The first being the aesthetics of it. As an art nerd, I must first point out that I think the colors in this photo make the photo very pleasing. The colors generally have muted tones and are not very bright, which can work well to represent the overall mood of the photo. The officers are wearing all black and the road is grey, which takes up a lot of the image background. The woman in the photo has dark skin and she is wearing a grey and white dress. To me, I think that the dull colors are perfect in this image, having these darker and muted colors can help represent just how dark these protests are and how saddening this topic really is, compared to bright colors that would depict a happier mood.

Another art concept I’d like to point out is where the subjects are placed. In the photo I chose, the background is relatively plain which draws the eye directly to the main subjects. The subjects are also placed directly in the middle, so it would be really difficult to miss the main aspect of this image, which makes it great for analysis. On the left we see a lot of movement with the officers, they were captured by the camera while they were clearly moving toward the woman. On the right, we can see that the woman is perfectly still. I really love the juxtaposition between these two figures. The left side feels chaotic while the right side seems very calm. This image can represent exactly what the Black Lives Matter protests are all about, being the harsh chaotic police system compared to the black woman (who to me can represent all black people) who is seemingly calm and is not doing any harm (as far as the image shows). This metaphor of the black woman face to face with the “enemy” being the unjust police system that has her literally fighting and protesting for justice is really powerful. It is so difficult not to be impacted by an image like this because of the strong message behind it which allows for very strong pathos.

There are so many things that work well in this photo, whether it be the color tones that can help display the mood of the image or the powerful message behind it. Overall, this was a very strong image to analyze and this image even has the potential to go down in history.