In Ferguson Uncensored the pictures show us what actually happens in Ferguson.  The picture of the mom holding the child in front of the police show the photographers use of medium shot, color, and different tactics to show how Ferguson is unfolding. Overall the picture shows us how the different visual techniques that affect our understanding of the area.  WE see the roles revered in the image through the FTP acronym, “NO VIOLANCE” on the girl’s arm, gaze of the people in the image, and presence of an African American Police officer.  

When we first notice the image the first motif that jumps out of the picture is FTP which is written on her chest (FTP- Fuck the Police).  FTP brings the reader to believe that she hates the police and everything about them.  This is breaking the stereotype that we see in Ferguson right now.  Instead of the FTP being written on an African American man and him being shamed and criticized for writing that on his chest, it is now on a white woman and nothing is happening to her. The woman clearly had the intention of starting some sort of commotion, but since is white and not black the police see her as no harm and not as a threat and ignore her completely.   This attributes to the role reversal of the image, by the white woman now protesting instead of an African American, and her being turned away while a black man would be ridiculed.  

The next visual image that you notice in this essay is the little girl that the mom is holding in her arms.  This little girl has “NO VIOLENCE” written on her arm.  This image is opposite to signs that we often see held up by protestors in Ferguson as it is now a little girl that is now this woman sign.  The image highlights the daughter with “NO VIOLANCE” ON HER ARM.  This shows the daughter reversing roles with an African American protesters’ signs.  By doing this the daughter now become the white moms protest sign.  The mom is having to use her daughter to try and get her point across, but is ineffective in her approach as she still gets no backlash or attention from the police.  In reality she is doing the same thing that African Americans are doing in Ferguson when they are protesting except she is white, a woman, and not using a sign, instead is using her kid.  Normally, we see African Americans who are protesting have gun that are pointed at them this woman gets nothing but stares from the police.  The police ignore her because she is a white mother.  

When you look at the gaze on the officers you notice that none of them are looking at the camera. They have a divergent gaze, which shows that are trying to ignore something and not look at it.  Now compare this to the face on the woman.  The woman has a very gloomy facial expression, while the officers are very serious and not looking at the camera.  This is showing us how they are not looking at the media and how they are not focusing on that.  With the officer’s divergent gaze, we see them looking into the distance and at their next target which is not the woman.  They see the woman as no threat, but see an African American man as a huge threat. 

Finally, you notice the African American officer.  He seems to be blended in with the other officers, which is because it was intended for you not to see him.  Then you see the white woman and her child.  Both of these are not stereotypical for Ferguson.  The woman is the complete opposite of what you’d expect.  Usually you think of an African American male and a squad of white police officers.  When we see this image it almost made it so that he is darkened out of the picture so that we do not recognize him and know who he is.  This image has been set up so he can only be seen with careful concentration.  The African American officer can be seen as completely different than his squad, you also notice he has a different gaze than the rest of his force.   His gaze is more tender than that of the rest of his squad.  The role reversal is switching form the angry and harmful black man to the African American officer who is trying to protect his community.  This reversal is the most powerful, because you only see this conflict as white versus black but now the African American officers opens it up to more than that, he makes it Police versus Protestors.   

In conclusion, the photographer uses a variety of tactics to show that this image is unique in its composition.  By using the FTP, little girl’s arm, other man in the picture, gaze, and African American Officer we see how they all show reversed roles and how changing one small detail such as race color can affect how the audience will view the image.  We see the white woman attempt in her riot to be unsuccessful, but in another Ferguson piece we see a black man not protesting at all.  He is simply just walking around and gets stopped by the Police with a multitude of guns pointed at him.  The image shows highlights the role reversal throughout the piece.  The first is the reversal of how a white woman is saying FTP to officers, and how that is not a black man doing that to them.  The next is daughter switching positions with an African American protest sign.  The daughter becomes the mothers protest sign to try any attempt to spark the police.  The final reversal in this picture is the African American officer in the crowd of white officers.  This image really highlights how you the violence is not black versus white, it is Police officers versus Protester, regardless of what race the protestors are.  What if Ferguson had been all African American officers and all white victims? How would people now view it?                            
