
The image above is of starving children, living in an Indian village, standing in a line for food that is to be shared by the entire community. This picture was taken in order to motivate the public to take action against the current world hunger problem, along with the issue of extreme poverty on a global scale. It does this by creating a combination of emotion to drive people to see the need for their action to support these communities. These issues are ones that need to be addressed by the world community in a timely matter in an efficient way. Specifically, those who live in developed countries that could make a substantial impact through direct aid or better food distribution and use, growing corn for food instead of ethanol production for example. The features of this image can be used to see how this failure of mankind affects this village and many areas of the world that exist under the same conditions. The features of line, focus, color, and coherence all contribute to the seriousness of this issue. Each of these features shows in a slightly different light how the struggle of life for these families is portrayed or how the rest of the world has failed them. Using these features the argument of why we in the developed or first world need to help these people less fortunate than us in the developing or third world will be made.

The first feature of this image is line. The most prominent line of this image, that also carries the most impact for this issue, is that of the children standing in a literal line for food. This line shows that they have to wait and rely on someone else to feed them and that their families are not able to feed themselves or their children. This issue will tend to arise in times of drought or when families living in a very low economic state and cannot afford seed at the beginning of the growing season or food from some sort of local market. The next line is those that are formed by the baggy clothing worn by the villagers. This may be the cultural identity of the region but it also contributes to the idea of the extreme poverty they live in, due to the fact that the clothes are worn out from continuous use and are also large enough for them to be used for many more years by growing children. The final lines that contributes to the seriousness of this situation are those that have been formed by the bones of the children visible due to malnutrition. This concept is one very foreign to those living in a developed country in the western part of the world and though many do go without food in the first world the shear percent of the population in these regions of the world similar to the one featured in this image is inconceivable to many who could help to improve their fellow man’s situation.  This unfortunate lifestyle is the reality for these struggling families.

Another feature of this image is focus. The dominant focus of this image is the girl in the pink and yellow clothing, her clothes being the brightest and she being the most clothed individual in the picture. She is the only one who is completely covered from head to toe while all the others have bare skin exposed in some form or another. This lack of clothing of the other children shows the extreme poverty inflicting this community. Yet the focus then seems to be drawn down the line toward the smallest child, five people back. Here the focus lingers on him and his expression before moving on to other areas of the photograph. His age shows how young the needy are. The fact that a child that is probably no more than five years of age has to stand in a line to receive food is heartbreaking. This shows that the extreme poverty in this region has made it so every member of the family must work to ensure success while one child may go get water another must get food, and everyone must do their part. After the young boy the focus then moves down the line to the background of the image where even more of the very young and very old wait for their rations. The other focus that can be analyzed is that of the children. They stare helplessly at the photographer fascinated, yet unmoved from their positions in the line for their meal. Again this idea of their helplessness toward the photographer demonstrates how not enough is being done to help support these people living in an underdeveloped nation. This focus exemplifies the emotion felt by these children who are struggling to get enough to eat.

The next feature of this image is color or lack thereof. The lack of color in this fully colored, unaltered photograph comes more from the lack of intentional colors. Meaning by this, the picture is mostly dirt, bare skin, and a few colored garments. The dirt can be thought of as a divider between their way of life and ours in a developed country that dirt is not our main ground covering for everyday life, that title would probably go to concrete and asphalt, we also like to think of ourselves as clean, or at least cleaner that people in the developing world, the dirt can also provide this distinction. The skin color is found to be the most interesting because in today’s society of the western world there is a strong sense of how the color of one’s skin affects their opportunities in life and how the rest of the society views them. And this First World thinking is often transferred over to those in developing nations, where people just write them off because ‘out of sight out of mind’ or because ‘they were born somewhere else.’ This thought process leads people who could help those in need to stand idle due to their own self-interest. Another color of intrigue in this image is the silver of the pans that the children carry. Usually people associate silver with wealth because of its status as a precious metal. But in this photograph it is only a bowl to provide sustenance. On top of that, it is empty, the only thing it represents for the people of this village and it is not even doing that at the moment. This symbol of wealth and luxury brought down to an empty promise of food, in an area that only knows extreme poverty. Another aspect of color that was mention earlier is the girl with the brightly colored yellow and pink clothes, can be seen as a bit of hope in this tough environment.

The final feature of this image is coherence. The main aspect that demonstrates coherence in this image is the organization of the group. The idea that the entirety of the group was able to organize themselves in a line for the good of the entire community is a common occurrence throughout the world but their resistance to disorder is remarkable in their trying times. That being, to receive food from the provider in an organized fashion and not creating a scene of madness. This community drive to wait in a line patiently for their nourishment, to work for one common goal is a very prominent part of this photograph, that even the starving children understand that this is the best method for all the parties involved in the process to receive what they need. However, at the same time there is an immense amount of incoherence in this picture too. As everyone in line is only interested in getting food for themselves or their family creating a strain on the organized machine they had created. This makes the people, especially the ones in the background, appear to tend towards chaos. This is the result of the famous Darwinian theory, survival of the fittest, no individual cares what happens to the others as long as they get their own.  The idea of this also contributes to a struggle within the community, or any community when resources get scarce, and this groups ability to remain calm and coherent in a time of adversity is quite admirable and not something all groups or villages could do.

The four features of this image show what life for these people is like living in a region that is being affected by world hunger and extreme poverty. The lines, focus, color and coherence of this image greatly contribute to the idea that the people living in these conditions need a significant amount of aid from the rest of the world. These issues are ones that we as citizens of the world community need to be concerned with, that other human beings out there do not have the same quality of life many in the western or first world are accustomed. This image only shows a few people within a whole village but there are millions more out there living through similar conditions. Though each of the visual aspects discussed illustrates more of the overall issue, the real cause is apathy on the part of people who could make a difference of those who have, to give to those who have not. This problem does not have to continue to be a part of anyone’s life, and could be rectified very soon with just a little work from the right people.
