Contrast

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. This cliché phrase always comes to my mind whenever I am asked to observe a photo. However, upon staring at the Plantation’s Overseer for a few minutes, I can easily come up with a single word that describes just about everything in the picture and that word is ‘contrast’.

Black and white photos are very focused on contrast. There is a very clear line between the darkness and the lightness in this picture. Nearly everything in the bottom right and up towards the top right is light while everything towards the left is darker.  

Now using the word contrast I do not just mean to describe just the picture but also the subject. It is clear to me that the white elephant in this picture is the fact that the ‘plantation overseer’ is more than likely the old white man in the picture and the darker skinned younger men are his slaves. At least, at first that is what I thought but staring a little longer at the expressions I don’t find it as likely. Of course, as the picture was taken in the later 1930’s, it is to be assumed that my first assumption is right. However, judging by the rather relaxed look on the younger men, I’m not so sure. Which brings up another contrasting element to the picture—the younger men look quite relaxed and rather bored, while the older man looks one of two things: incredulous or angry. I find that the ‘are you serious’ sort of look fits the old man better. I can only imagine what the man to the left is saying to the white man.

I try to find the good in people and perhaps that trait in me is affecting how I view this picture but as it is I find that the man hiding in the left side of the picture is the ‘bad guy’ so to say. Naturally it would be assumed that the older man was the bad guy, what with having slaves and being the boss and such, but I just can’t see it that way. I see him more of the grumpy old man who treats his help fairly but with an iron fist. There is nothing wrong with that. That guy to the left though, he looks pretty suspicious to me. The fact that the workers are so chill makes me want to trust the old man and the fact that the old man looks rather grumpy at the business-looking man makes me want to distrust him.

Of course, I could be very wrong. It very well could be what it looks like at a glance but if I were being completely honest, I like my version better.