Twigg

In Right Reginald Twigg’s “The Performative Dimension of survailence” the author analyzes the photographs used in Jacob Riis’ “How the other half Lives” and identifies the visual rhetoric utilized in each picture. Twigg attempted to to display the techniques Riis applied to capture the audience with his use of images that rejected the societal norms.

The photograph displayed. on page 28 was a great example of Riis’ use of societal stereotypes from the late 19nth century to capture his audience. The picture was a black and white photo of a family sitting in a small apartment in which each family member seems to be occupied with a task. The title of the image is “Bohemian Cigarmakers at Work in a Tenement”(Twiggs 28). Knowing that, one can confirm that each and every member of the family is taking part in the manufacturing of cigars, including the children. Twigg states that this picture is showing its audience a place where gender and age roles are not apparent, for each member of the family, man, woman, and child, have the same objective. Twigg states “The children, presumably, must surrender play or school time in order to help the family earn a living. Each family member participates in the same economic activity, suggesting in its subtlety that the “domestic” activities of the family are dysfunctional.”(Tiwgg 28). This was exactly what Riis sought out to expose and it spoke volumes to his audiences. However, photography of that time required subjects to remain completely still for long periods of time or else the picture would not come out correctly. This means that Riis would require his subjects stand completely still, which destroys the actual candidness of the photo because he is not taking a photo of the actual moment itself and he could manipulate the image however he wanted. Twigg correctly states that Riis’ pictures are presented in “powerful realist” manner, when in reality he is able to manipulate the pictures, along with their captions/context in order to convey the rhetoric in his ideal situation to his audience.