
People looking at pictures of the Ferguson riots might believe we are at war. The “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” movement started after an African American teenager, Michael Brown, was shot and killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri (Dickinson).  Some people believe that he was innocent, while others believe the police officer was just protecting himself. Either way another African American teenager was killed by cops with little explanation. After the Ferguson Grand Jury decided that the officer, Darren Wilson, was not guilty, riots erupted in the streets. Pictures taken during these riots raise issues of racial violence and child safety which are some of the same concerns that started these riots. They don’t depict the whole story but tell a unique, unfinished story. 

The seventh photo in “Ferguson, Uncensored” titled “Hand Up, Don’t Shoot” depicts one African American teenager with his hands up, against an army of trained cops. It’s a long shot so we can see the full body of not only the cops but also of the African American teenager. This teenager clearly stands out with his bright turquoise shirt on, while the officers are in camouflage and gas masks. The officers look like they are ready to blend in somewhere in Afghanistan, not downtown St. Louis. What looks to be a Public Storage, with its bright orange doors, stands out in the background and doesn’t help the officers blend in. The United States Postal Service box with the phase, “Fuck the Police”, captures our attention, as it is one of the first things we see. It’s interesting how the only thing that separates all the white cops from the one African American cop is the mail box as it seems to show that there might be a divide between not only the African American citizens and the white cops, but also the African American cops and the White cops. The African American teenager is on the far left side of the picture, making us unable to see what is behind him. He is not the exactly the focal point of the picture, but is positioned in a way that we see the cops pointing their guns at him using our peripheral vision. His body is a little fuzzy or out of focus. This might have been on purpose by the photographer who didn’t want this teenager to just represent one person, but be generalized and represent a community. This person could be a boy or a girl, and not being able to see the facial expressions of anyone in the picture allows for more speculations of what is happening. We use preconceptions about this topic to determine factors we are unable to see. Some people might think he was the one that wrote that phrase on the mailbox, or there might be something concealed in the bag around his shoulder. Still others might believe the police were targeting him because he is an African American, and they have no right to point their guns at him with his hands up. The photographer made the decision to crop the shot in a way where we can’t see what is behind the African American teenager. The positioning in the photograph allows for different interpretations of the same picture. These factors will drive the debate about what is really happening. There isn’t really a correct answer other than we need to do something to change this type of behavior in the US.

In the process of trying to calm down rioters, tear gas was fired but the people who were not aggressively rioting were affected the most. In the eighth photo in “Ferguson Uncensored”, photographer, Scott Olson, captures a picture of a small African American girl holding a white rag against her face to try to avoid the tear gas. We can see her face clearly, with her black hair neatly braided. The close up of her face, full of shock and innocence, covers most of the photograph. This facial expression captures the attention of the audience and makes them feel the same reactions she was feeling when this picture was taken. We can still see part of her mother holding her up on the left side of the picture. Positioning the bright light in the background makes us focus all our attention on the eyes and rag that cover part of her face. The rest of the background is dark making the girl the focal point of the picture. People might wonder what it took for the police to shoot tear gas into an area that had children in it. Children especially should not be exposed to these harmful gases. While she probably should not have been out there, it’s the cops job to try to break up the protests peacefully and resort to tear gas as a last option. 

These pictures use positioning to describe a story in a way that even people who don’t know the situation can understand. Pictures have the power to put us in the place of a police officer, innocent child or protester. Positioning the girl in the center of the picture, making it so we can’t take our eyes off of her, forces us to look at the bigger problem, while facial expressions make us feel the emotional side of the story. We have to question our morals as humans if children are in harm’s way because of our own actions. Positioning also has the ability to create controversy over what was actually taking place, as we see in the picture of the African American teenager vs. the police. This picture does not give us the full story, but allows us to come to our own conclusions and possibly question why we assume the things we do. Positioning has the ability to change the scene completely. If we were to take the police officers’ point of view we might see a different picture, but because we are looking at it from the teenager’s point of view we feel as though the guns are not only pointed at him but at us. We also wouldn’t have been able to see the, “Fuck the Police”, on the mailbox, raising an entirely different question. Positioning doesn’t always provide understanding of what is truly happening, but uncovers the issues that are at the heart of every argument. These pictures raise the concerns of racial violence and inequality in the US, through a different lens. However, it’s how we respond to these pictures that will determine our fate as a country.ƒΩ
