Annotated Bib #2 Lyndsay Tipton

"Woman in her bedroom, Washington, D.C. (Southwest Section), November 1942"

Observation: The main subject of this photograph is a middle-aged African American woman sitting on the edge of her bed. Her arms are spread out to either side of her, her hands resting on the mattress. The actual photograph is not of her directly, but of her reflection. The photographer is taking a picture of her reflection in a large mirror on the wall of her bedroom. To the side of the mirror, displayed on the wall is a portrait of a Caucasian man. This man is Franklin D. Roosevelt, the current president of the United States when this photograph was taken. The woman is dressed in what appears to be plain clothing and her bedroom contains simply the necessities, nothing excessive. The woman is not looking into the camera, she is looking to the side away from what is captured in the photograph.

Inference: What immediately drew me to this photograph was the picture of FDR hanging on the woman's bedroom wall. This photograph was taken in Washington, D.C. in 1942. Just a year prior, FDR had issued Executive Order 8802, which in turn, had created the Fair Employment Practice Committee. Essentially, what this did, was make it so that people could not be hired for any reason related to race, religion, national origin, etc. This was of massive importance to the African American community and could be seen as the biggest move toward's equality that occurred between the Reconstruction period and the Civil Right's Movement. This woman has FDR's portrait on her wall, which could signify, at least in my opinion, that he is a sign of hope for her or a person that she admires. She has the portrait placed right next to her mirror. When she wakes up and is getting for her day, she is bound to look at herself in that mirror, which would be a daily reminder of who she is: a lower class African American woman in a racially unequal society. However, once she looks up, she can see the face of FDR, which could potentially remind her that her situation may be finally starting to look up and that there are some people (even people of power) that are on her side. Having the portrait of FDR in this photograph is also a reminder for the viewer of what kind of events were happening at the time that it was taken. Over seas a war was going on but right at home, there were all of these issues concerning poverty, racism, and downright inequality. I think that this photograph is an incredibly moving one simply because of how much can be taken from it and how huge of a reminder of the past that it can be for a modern day viewer. 

Citations:

"FDR on Racial Discrimination, 1942." THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY,    2015. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.

Knight, Christopher. "Resonance Man." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2000. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.