This photograph, taken in the 1980s, captures a glimpse of New York City that is very different from what we are familiar with today.  The cars, clothing, and shops in the photo give viewers a portal into another era.  The photograph’s motif—the stark contrast between the homeless man and the family, draws readers into it emotionally.  The chosen long shot, absence of color, and semi-reciprocal gaze not only highlight the photograph’s time period, but they also shed light on the plight of homeless African Americans in the 1980s.  

The photograph was taken horizontally to create a long shot.  The long shot provides viewers with a panoramic view of a sidewalk and street in 1980s New York City.  The background includes a skyscraper’s windows while the foreground features the side of a building, the sidewalk, and a homeless man with his few possessions.  The mid-ground includes a storefront and automobiles of the era.  The tops of the buildings are cropped out to draw the viewers’ attention down onto the people.  However, the street and sidewalk look bare and people are sparse.  This bareness contrasts to the mental image that many people most likely have of the modern New York City, which is known for being crowded and always on the move.  There are few cars on the street, including a 1970s Volkswagen Golf and two old fashioned vans.  The shop signs and advertisements include those of a film develop shop (digital cameras were not yet in use), an airline agency, an electronic store (personal electronic devices were just beginning to become popular), and a movie theater-style marquee with “New York Statue” written on it.  These details give the viewer clues on what it was like to live in New York City in the 1980s.    

In the 1980s, color photography was very common; black and white photos had become uncommon.  However, although not the norm in the 1980s, black and white photographs would be used to emphasize shadows and textures in a scene.  The use of black and white photography for this picture highlights several distinctive characteristics of the scene.  For example, the left side of the picture is well lit while the right side is in the shadow and therefore darker.  This helps to draw the attention of the viewer to the focal point, which is the interaction between the beggar and the approaching family.  Another distinctive characteristic can be seen in the clothing worn by the people in the photograph.  The shirts worn by the father and son, the girl’s dress, and the beggar’s shirt are all white, which contrasts with the gray sidewalk.  Although all four main figures are wearing white clothes, the use of black and white photography emphasizes their difference in texture.  In this case, it helps to highlight a difference in the clothing between the beggar and the family.  The beggar’s clothes are wrinkled and worn whereas the clothes of the approaching father are well-pressed.  These details help to draw attention to the difference in socio-economic status between the two.  The approaching man is most-likely an upper-middle class business man, whereas the seated African American beggar looks as though he may be homeless and have no other clothes.  Similarly, the beggar has rough, bare feet, a stark contrast with the clean, white, frilly socks worn by the children.

Gaze is also used to connect the individuals in the photograph in important ways that serve to support the motif.  As the beggar looks up hopefully at the approaching father, the father is turning to look back, as though he is either avoiding the beggar’s request for money or simply unaware of it.  The two young children are staring down with innocent curiosity at the beggar as if they had never encountered such a figure before.  Judging by the little boy’s furrowed brow and questioning gaze, a beggar is an unfamiliar sight to him.  The young girl exhibits a stare that is devoid of emotion.  Meanwhile, the mother, walking behind the father and his children, is looking at the beggar with an expression of annoyance.  All have a semi-reciprocal gaze, with each person avoiding the gaze of the other.    

Body language is also used to show how people of an upper class respond to those who are less fortunate.  While the beggar is extending an arm towards the family in hopeful expectation, the father tightly clutches his children’s hands as if to keep them from getting to close to the beggar or to keep the beggar from snatching them away from him.  Additionally, and as mentioned before, he is looking away as if to avoid or ignore the beggar as well as leaning away.  Meanwhile, the small boy is leaning in and staring intently.  The homeless man is seen as being vulnerable.  Compared to the people walking by, he is crouched on the sidewalk in a vulnerable position while everyone else towers above him.  Vulnerability of the lower class was a consistent theme during the 1980s, and still is today.  

In this photograph, only two African American men are spotted, showing the group as a minority.  In the 1980s, funding to civil rights movements came to an end (Murrin et al, ch. 15).  This made the social and economic gap between the upper and lower class widen, especially the colored lower class.  This builds contrast between the well-off father with his children and the homeless African American man who must beg for change.

The long shot view, lack of color, and judgmental gaze of the woman show what it was like to live as a lower class citizen in New York City in the 1980s.  The appearance of the upper-middle class father gripping the hands of his children is used to highlight how people of a higher lass were either unaware of chose to ignore people of a class beneath them.  The motif’s purpose is to show the homeless African American man as vulnerable compares to those around him.  However, although is photo was taken in the 1980s, the theme is still relevant today.  
