Smoke Signals in the City

USA. Brooklyn, New York. September 11, 2001.

9/11 the day the earth stood still. A cloud of devastation swarmed and coated buildings and everything around it in a thick ash. Everyone has a story about the day and some did not come home to tell to the story. Images and videos went on and circulated the news and internet forever solidifying the reality of the tragedy,yet altering the thoughts and feelings of the american people. Hoepker took this photo in Brooklyn on the day of 9/11 . Showing a group of youthful people enjoying their day while in the background catastrophe erupts in Manhattan. A terrorist attack hits the heart of NYC and  this photo makes the assumption that no one seems to mind . In my paper I will be deconstructing with the similar eye of John Berger’s ” Ways of seeing” revealing the different perspectives that  the photographer Hoepker is shown to use when selecting this moment in time to capture. From the foreground a light blue  sky and lush greenery framing the photo elegantly symbolizing a nice day that everyone has experienced and enjoyed at least once  , demonstrated by the Youthful people sun bathing in midst a conversation  as if they enveloped in this moment yet the background shows a plume of smoke indication devastation and death. The two contradicting scenes displayed in this photos allows the spectator’s mind to be easily bend to its interpretation and begs the question “Did they know what was happening ? did they care? or worse ..did they already forget?..” All speculations cause by the forced Perspective that the artist creates and that  John Berger speaks of in the “Ways of Seeing” perspective that is made specifically manipulate the viewers thoughts to form the same view that Hoepker saw in that moment that day .

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