Session Two: Unstable Objects: Photography, Social Change, and Dissent
I found three versions of a photograph showing Mahatma Gandhi leading a group of people during the 1930 Salt March, which was part of a wider campaign of civil disobedience to protest British rule over India. The first version of the photo is close-cropped and seems to create a point of focus on Gandhi and was found on a blog site as part of a header image. The second version was found here: https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-scenes-during-mahatma-gandhis-famous-salt-march-this-march-on-foot-162592623.html. The second photo shows more of the people who marched alongside Gandhi and gives an idea of the place where they marched (as foliage is shown in the background). The third photo shows a colour version of the photo, also from a blog, which has cropped out the man with a moustache on the far right of the Alamy photo. I think creating a focus on one person visually perhaps also focuses — whether intentionally or not — on one person’s story and therefore agency. Adding colour to a photo may help to create a wider appeal to audiences of different generations who may be more used to seeing colour photographs. However, this may also make the photograph more difficult to date, as the original all-over colour and/or texture of a photo may tell us about what photographic process was used, thereby giving an approximate timeline of when the photo was made.
alamy.com
Download this stock image: Scenes during Mahatma Gandhi’s famous Salt March. This march on foot to the sea coast at Dandi, on the eve of the Salt Satyagraha, 1930. This peaceful resistance was part of Gandhi's Non-violent opposition to British … Continue reading