The photo I have chosen to analyze is the famous photo of Vietnam War protestor Mary Ann Becchi kneeling over the lifeless body of unarmed protestor Jeffery Miller who had just been shot by police. This was taken at the Kent State shooting, which was when the national guard fired upon a group of protestors who were protesting the Vietnam War, killing four young people and ended up becoming a major turning point on public opinion about whether the USA should be fighting in Vietnam. I think it has a lot of interesting details and aspects such as how everyone is acting which shows us their emotions and wants, while the lack of origination shows us what happens to groups when disaster strikes, and the perspective of the viewer allows the photographer to give us a certain idea and bias about the subject.

The first thing I notice is how it seems like the only person who seems to be paying any 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 that is more important than a dead man? 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. 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. The body of Jeffery and the way he is just lying there, with the only person watching him a random girl, and the fact that everyone seems to be standing by themselves shows that in cases of great danger people tend to focus on themselves.

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. She seems to be less concerned about Jeffery the person and more about processing what just happened.

Another thing I noticed in the photo is the organization or in this case the lack of it. There doesn’t seem to be any organization 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 and their constitutional right to freedom of speech. I can completely understand why the people in this photo have just given up. Their unity did not bring them strength and now they must think that if the government is willing to kill protestors then the war might just never stop and peace will never come.

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 her supposed protectors 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.
