How I...: Presenting an Iconic Image (11th)

As always, I will provide an overview of my steps, then go into detail on each.

  1. Review the prompt
  2. List significant events
  3. Identify an image
  4. Record the details of the image

 

Step One: Review the Prompt

The prompt says that I must find an image that "should represent a significant historical event and elicit a strong emotional response." The prompt does describe an iconic image as one that has been "reproduced across a range of media, genres, or topics" (that is, it may have painted versions, sculpted versions, it may be in multiple books, it has been shown in movies, etc), but earlier it says that it does NOT need to have been reproduced many times. This seems to suggest that I can choose an image that I personally think should be iconic.

STEP TWO: List Significant Events

A List of Events that I Think Mattered

  • March on Selma
  • Japanese Internment
  • Black Lives Matter
  • McCarthy Hearings
  • September Eleventh
  • Civil Rights Acts signed
  • Columbine and Sandy Hook Shootings
  • Obama Elected
  • Clinton Impeached
  • Nixon Resigned
  • Pearl Harbor
  • Trail of Tears
  • Numerous NASA events
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Women get the right to vote

If I want to chose an image that matters, I should consider what events would have been cause for an important image to have been taken. There are wars, social movements (like protests), riots, great achievements, and devastating disappointments. If I'm not a huge history buff, looking up "historical events" might not be a bad place to start, but if I did this I would want to make sure I'm choosing a subject because I thought the event really mattered (and not just because I found a cool picture).

Armed with this information, I make a list of the events that I think really mattered in American history, a list I've included.

STEP THREE: Identify an Image

Of these, I think I'd like to choose an image that stands out to me of the second plane hitting the Twin Towers in the September 11th attacks. I was in highschool when this happened, and I can recall watching it on TV. After looking around, I find one that really seems to represent the great and terrible violence of the act.

I found this image that I think really captured the details of the tragedy. Finding who originally took it was tougher, but when I realized there was a version on wikipedia, that made things easier. Because wikipedia provides references to all of their content, it was easy to see the original source was from a Flikr account, "TheMachineStops."

STEP FOUR: Record the Details of the Image

The last step is to do the write-up. In completing this, I closely examine all the small details present in the image and consider the historical context of what is pictured. I must be aware of the emotion and personal experience that viewing the picture creates. My write-up follows:

Subject: United Airlines Flight 157 Crashes into the World Trade Center

Source: Flikr, "TheMachineStops"

Why it is Iconic: This picture captures the moment Flight 157 barrelled into the World Trade Center, the second plane to hit. The fireball is enormous, and debris can be seen falling down as smoke plumes up. The picture itself captures not just the violence of the action, but the witnessing of it, as on the far right people can be seen watching everything from their rooftop. These towers stood so tall - nearly twice as tall as any of the nearby buildings - that nearly everyone in New York City could stop exactly where they were and watch absolute horror unfold. And they did. In fact, the world did, as the impact of the second plane was captured by news and distributed worldwide. This is an an event that was devastating. It was painful to see these terrible acts of violence, and even as we were shocked by these acts of terror, as a people we were incapable of doing anything about it. After this moment, America's relationship with the world - and the middle east especially - changed dramatically, making it an important event in our history, in addition to it being the single greatest loss of life from terrorism, with 2,996 individuals losing their lives. Because of the enormity of the moment and the emotions captured, this image is, without question, iconic.

(Originally Published September 9th, 2016)