The photo I have chosen to analyze is the famous photo of Vietnam protestor Mary Ann Becchi standing over the lifeless body of unarmed protestor Jeffery Miller who had just been shot by police. Four people died that day, but this photo is the most remembered image from that day. I think it has a lot of interesting details and aspects such as how everyone is acting, the lack of origination, and the perspective of the viewer.

The first thing I notice is how it seems like the only person who seems to be paying attention to Jeffery even though he had just been shot was Mary Ann. It appears most of them are either standing still or just minding their own business. I would think that if there was gunfire so close to you your first instinct would be to run or help someone, but they don’t seem to care. The lady in the white shirt on the left appears to be looking behind Mary Ann but I don’t see anything behind her so what could she be looking at? The man to the right of her is staring up into the sky and walking away although he doesn’t seem to be in a rush at all. Unless you were just trying to keep an eye on the shooter what could be so important that its more important than getting to safety? The lady to the right of Mary Ann appears to be looking at the man and she appears to be holding onto Mary’s hand, but she seems more interested in the man to her right than Jeffery. Everyone else not already mentioned just appears to be walking casually which makes me wonder was the shooting already over or maybe they had moved the body because usually when there’s a dead body people will try to help.

Mary Ann herself is an interesting display of human emotion. She has her hands in the air which makes me believe that it is a signal for when will the violence end or just a lack of understanding of why the police would do this. She is kneeling next to Jeffery, but she does not appear to be assisting him and is more in just a state of shock. Her head is looking up to the sky which further supports the point of her bewilderment and her face looks like one that a person in a great deal of pain would have not someone kneeling.

The body of Jeffery and the way he is just lying there, with the only person watching him a random girl, can be seen as a symbolization for the effects of violence against large groups of people. When you attack a large group of people they tend to scatter and lose all sense of unification.

Another thing I noticed in the photo is the origination or in this case the lack of it. There doesn’t seem to be any origination in this photo. The people don’t appear to be united at all they all seem to be standing by themselves and secluded. This symbolizes a lack of hope and awe that even though they were conducting a peaceful protest they were still fired on. It’s almost like after that what else can you do. The protestors were peaceful and yet they were still fired upon by people who were supposed to be protecting them. I can completely understand why the people in this photo have just given up.

There is no organizational line that you would see in a normal protest photo, like the ones from people marching in Selma during the civil rights movements. There is probably no unification because they were just fired upon by the police. That was probably the polices goal just to disrupt them as there can be no protest without unification.

The perspective of the photo was interesting because it almost makes you forget that the police did this and it just appears to be a girl crying over a body. The perspective also makes the picture more about the bystanders then if it was just a close up of Jeffery and Mary Ann. It would not let us see the bystanders, but I feel it would make the picture more intense as we could most likely force us to focus our emotions on two things: death and sadness. The current angle makes it more about loss, despair, disruption, and a lack of unity. 

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you took it from behind because it makes me wonder if Mary Ann was yelling at the police who most likely still had their guns out. The photo would then become one of anger, shock, and general confusion because it would be of a girl yelling at killers and asking why they would do this to an innocent boy.

In conclusion, this photo brings a lot of opinions and emotions especially as it right in the middle of Americas most decisive era. The whole Kent State shooting represents the divide in the early 70s America as the police who represent the establishment and the protestors who represents the common people are clearly not on the same page at all and have now resorted to violence. That is beside the point, but to wrap up I think the photos perspective, emotions and actions of the people in the photo, and the origination of the photo are what makes it such a good photo and one that you can really get invested in.

