WP1: First Draft

The people of the republic of Rwanda have seen extreme hatred and violence; more of which many of us would be able to bear. Families and friends torn apart, homes destroyed, hundreds of thousands of lives stolen, the Rwandan Genocide greatly affected the lives of the people living in the small country. Beginning in April of the year 1994, warfare erupted across Rwanda. The two ethnic groups that make up the country, the Hutu and the Tutsi, went up in arms against each other. As a result, a number of Hutu extremists murdered and wiped out approximately 800, 000 Tutsi people and moderate Hutus over the course of only about 100 days. To express the magnitude of this genocide, the Imbabazi Orphanage website states, “Never before in history has there been an extermination of human life on such a scale in such a short period of time.” As a result of this mass “extermination,” more than 95, 000 children were left without parents. A woman named Roz Carr discovered this disheartening fact and started up the Imbabazi Orphanage; Imbabazi meaning, “a place where you will receive all the love and care a mother would give.”

This orphanage, located in Rwanda, is dedicated to giving life back to the Rwandan people; with a strong focus on its children. Along with treating them with the love and respect essential to their emotional development, different activities are incorporated into their daily lives to keep the children happy, involved, and active in the community. One activity organized by the leaders of the Imbabazi Orphanage was a photo essay project. The children and adolescents of the orphanage were given cameras and told to take pictures of their surroundings and of their daily lives in general. I found this particular text in the online gallery of these photographs. I selected a photo from a young man named Twagira’s collection. Reading his biography, he seems very joyous and full of life regardless of the pain he has been through. I feel that many of the photos in his collection tell this same story – including this one in particular.

Fishing by Twagira is one of the more powerful photos in the gallery. I have analyzed this photograph very similarly to the way in which I have analyzed literary works in the past, and through my analyses and observations, I have found that this picture captured by Twagira expresses that the people of the Imbabazi Orphanage of Rwanda are, in fact, incontestably small compared to the struggles they face, but are still significant, in control, and are able to overcome these struggles especially when supported by people who care for them. Specific elements such as coloration, vectors of attention, and framing of the scene are used to illustrate this social, personal, and emotional argument and appeal to pathos.

The saturation of the hues found in this photo are very full, immediately compelling the viewer to engage himself in the photo while invoking further interest in it from the viewer. While sharpening the landscape and figures within the photograph, the use of high saturation also sharpens, if you will, the emotion of sorrow that is being felt by the viewer. He is still sorrowful, but the hard mood of the highly saturated hues helps the viewer to emote a certain level of determined hopefulness. He is troubled, but wants to further investigate the photograph in a search for contentment. The hues found in this picture are all pretty much the same – different variations of grays, browns, and whites. It is almost difficult to distinguish and separate the sky from the sea, and the sea from the shore. Though the hues themselves are seemingly bleak and make the viewer feel a bit blasé about the photograph, the photo is in fact very bright, and this brightness instills in the viewer this feeling of conflicting emotion. To apply this observation to a real world aspect of this photo, perhaps the men would rather be engaging in a task other than fishing. Unfortunately for them, this task is necessary for survival and needs to be carried out, so they decide to just make the best of it. In addition, the way in which the waves on the sea are recognizably shadowed and defined evokes within the viewer a darker and more complicated emotion. This shadowing of the waves and the melancholy, dark gray hue of the water work to create this dismal emotion in the viewer. The hues alone would spark a level of disinterest in the viewer, but the high saturation, brightness, and use of shadowing found in the photograph bring about some strong emotions in the viewer, and might even compel him to come up with scenarios about the two men and their current situation at sea.

Furthermore, the vectors of attention in the photograph are utilized in a way in which our attention is directed to a specific portion of the photo. The horizon in relation to the shoreline work together to pull our eyes to the center; where the two men stand near their small boat waiting to catch fish. These men are not looking at the camera. In fact, they are looking in the opposite direction towards the horizon, so we as viewers are not able to see their faces. This creates an outsider perspective and creates curiosity in the viewer about what exactly is going on in this photograph and between the two men. To further speak about the men in this picture, I drew the conclusion that they are close friends – maybe even relatives – based on their body language, vectors of attention toward each other, and the context in which they are spending their time. Two men fishing would hopefully be familiar with each other; otherwise, those long, drab periods of time while fish are not being active could be considerably awkward.

Lastly, the framing of this photo is really what makes it. Twagira wanted to take a picture of the two men fishing, but he instead captured the entire landscape, making the two men seem small and insignificant while at the same time, through the use of coloration and vectors of attention, the most important aspects of the photo. The photograph is framed just perfectly so that the sea looks endless from all angles apart from the shoreline in the foreground. The emotion developed here is one of loneliness and even of insignificance.

This vast, open-looking sea, along with the manipulation of somber hues and the unusual function of vectors of attention, all come together to express to us as the viewers what I believe Twagira as the photographer and collector of the text wanted to convey to us through his photo. He understands that in comparison to the conflict, warfare, and heartache the people of Rwanda have faced, they are undoubtedly small. Their significance in the Republic, however, is still great. They are continuing to grow as a people, and will still continue to grow through time and help and support from one another.