Imagine walking down the street and seeing a herd of police come down pointing their guns all around? This would be terrifying for someone who was not doing anything and was just minding their own business. This is what is depicted in a picture taken in Ferguson, Missouri by the photographer Scott Olson posted on rollingstone.com. This image illustrates the strong anti-police theme among many people of the United States. Olson uses the elements of symbolism to express the feelings of black people and filmic language such as:  sharp focus, long shot, reciprocal attention, and object oriented attention to make his audience feel what it was like to be in Ferguson during the protest and the strong anti-police theme. 

Olson uses symbolism in the photo when he shows the young man’s hands being up. This action symbolizes him surrendering, and to not shoot. Olson uses this symbolism to show that there was a fear of being shot by the police. This fear came about because there had been many incidences of young unarmed black men being shot and killed around the country and even in this same city. This symbolism is important because it shows the immense fear that the black communities have toward the police and the distrust they live with. The fact the male puts his hands up as soon as he sees the police, as if he did something wrong, shows how bad the relationship between the black communities and law enforcement has become. For Olson to include this symbol in the foreground of the photograph he is showing the people what the black communities are fighting against.

Another way Olson show the struggles of the black communities is through his use of filmic language in this photo. One type of filmic language used is sharp because of the police being in focus in the photo and the man with his hands up being a blur. The sharp focus on the police shows that the police are the most important element in the photo. The focus on the police overshadows the symbol of the man with his hands up. This represents the idea that the police have all the power and black Americans are second class citizens. Olson knew that the main problem is the police and so he focused on them. Another type of filmic language in the photo is long shot. The reason Olson used long shot was to show the people what was really happening in Ferguson. By using the long shot the viewer sees the severity of what the black people face because including the black male in the photo shows who the victims really are. Similarly, there are two types of attention Olson used to show the conflict between the people in the photograph; one is reciprocal attention. In the photo the police have their eyes on the young man in front of them and the young man has his focus on the police so with both parties paying attention to each other reciprocal attention comes to mind. Reciprocal attention is powerfully used here to show the standoff between the black community and law enforcement. The second attention is object oriented because the object focused on in the photo is the gun. The viewers can imagine the guns being pointed at them and this is what makes the use of object orientation effective in showing what black people experience when they encounter police. Ultimately, all of these uses of filmic language show how black people struggle with police.

There is one part of visual text on the mail box and it says “fuck the police” that’s the only visual text in the entire photo. These words speak loudly when you see them and observe what is going on in the photo. In Ferguson the city where this photo was shot there is a problem with the citizens protesting in the streets about the police abusing their authority. So those words show that the people are tired of the police and the police are supposed to be protecting us instead they are killing us so that is why the people have so much hate in them to “fuck the police”. The visual text is on a mail box and usually mail boxes send messages. This is ironic because the message that is being conveyed is “fuck the police”. The words on the mail box show the hatred and anger of the people towards the police.

There are several emotions that convey the feelings of the viewer and the citizen in the photo. The emotions that the viewer sees in the photo are fear, anger, control, and helplessness. If you as a viewer put yourself in that man’s shoes how would you feel if there were ten police officers with high powered military like rifles in your face? Fear is the first emotion that comes to mind because there are several cops with guns pointed at you and you are an unarmed black man just like Michael Brown. You would be scared for your life. Another emotion the photograph elicits is anger because people know how the police treat unarmed black males. Furthermore, one can see the man in the photo has no control of the situation he is in and the police have all the control because of their authority which can be seen with their numbers, guns, and body armor. The last emotion the viewer should feel is helplessness because the man can do nothing but raise his hands in the air and hope he does not get shot by the police. All these elements show how the man in the photo feels at that moment and evoke strong feelings in the viewers. 

In this photograph the photographer showed a clear message that police are abusing their power by using several different elements to compose this photo. The first element is a symbol of the young man with his hands up; this shows how police abuse their power. Another element is visual text and throughout the entire photo there was only one form of visual text, “fuck the police,” and it went perfect with the theme of the photo by showing the hate toward the police. Emotions were another way of showing the feelings of the man in the photo and the viewers mind set towards the photo. Lastly, there was filmic language. All of these elements helped all of the viewers to learn the whole picture of black lives matter!
