Looking at the picture by Robert Frank and thinking about ways to interpret it given the two books, Film Art and Practices of Looking, I’ve begun to think that they would probably chose to interpret the photo in much the same way. Maybe this is due to the way that I have interpreted the photo – that I’m reading into both texts and seeing my point of view reflected. This photo makes me think that the black woman is the caregiver to the white baby; perhaps she is the nanny. This, in turn, makes me think about racial issues saying that blacks, so much more often found in the lower classes than whites, due to history, therefore tend to be the ones that take the less idolized jobs, such as nannying. The photo, I think, is a commentary on this. The black woman (the nanny) seems resigned to her job, as many black people may be, but this is not a fair way for society to run.
Film Art judges this interpretation on a more emotional level. It focuses on the aesthetic components more than the various cultural ways to read the photo. First it looks at the emotions represented in the photo. The baby is oblivious to the world around it other than how the world affects it, and so no real emotion can be taken. The woman, however, seems resigned to the responsibilities she has taken on. She probably has other things related to her own personal life that she will get to when she goes home. The audience of this photo may take what they may from it. They may sympathize with the unjustices of the world that the woman must care for this baby, despite any other goals she may have had earlier in her life. Audiences could also choose to see the woman as content: happy to be taking care of the child because, perhaps, she has always loved working with children. This shot seems to have been taken candidly: maybe the photographer took it while walking by. It gives the photo a sense of realism, which Film Art finds to be important in judging a piece of artistic work. A moral reading of the photo is left up to the viewer, and Film Art does not seem interested in offering any way of directing how viewers could choose to interpret the emotions and situations shown in the picture, other than stating that culture is a main tactic to read into a piece. Clearly the photo has complexity in its meaning, which Film Art finds important, but no matter the way readers chose to interpret it – be it the economic plight of many black people in
Practices of Looking, on the other hand, seems more inclined to judge the photo on its style and aesthetics. How much thought might the photographer have put into the composition in order to convey their message? As the photo is an attempt to affect people’s emotions on the subject, it’s largely judged on how best to bring out those emotions. They, too, stress the importance of culture and individual viewpoints to interpreting the message. But Practices of Looking also stresses the context in which the photo is displayed. If it were shown among other pictures of lower class life, people’s interpretation of it would be very different than if it were shown among happier pictures of children. The people who would most likely go to see the photo would change its interpretation as well. People in the lower class would be more likely to read into the injustices the shot could portray whereas those in a child services occupation may view it more as a shot of a caring relationship. Practices of Looking views how time can change the way society forms and therefore how society looks at a photo such as this. In the days before the Civil Right Movement, people may have been much less likely to see any problems with a black woman caring for a child that’s not her own. Under another vein of thought, a society that strongly values the upbringing of healthy children may not see issue with the photo either, believing, possibly, that the mother may have to work somewhere else and the woman in the photo is merely being a helpful, caring citizen for assisting the working mother to get everything finished. The photo could even be a way for the photographer to argue for the empowerment of women helping each other in certain circles of society. In the end, though, this is probably just a more in-depth look at the same interpretations Film Art came up with.
