Andrew Heller's Annotated Bibliography 6

Observation

In this picture a black woman sits alone at a long and wooden table. There is a half finished bottle of wine and a glass on the table in front of her. Also on the table is a telephone and an ash tray with several cigarette butts in it. The woman is sitting with her head in her knees and is covering her eyes. She's wearing all black and a single light shines above her loneliness. There is nothing else present in the photograph.

Inferences

After seeing all of the pictures in this set and reading the included passages it appears to me that this woman is weighed down by the expectations forced upon her by both society and her male partner. In the previous pictures they were together and happy; getting to know each other and spending time together at the table. But in the written passage that occurs before this one, the woman is talking about being unsure what more her man can want for her. She says that she already has a job and is there for him in many ways, but he still is ambivalent as to the type of partner he wants. The picture reinforces this premise as it appears like she is worn down. To me, the alcohol and cigarettes suggest that she is taking part in some self-destructive numbing to deal with the pain. Additionally, the light is shining brightly down upon her, and I feel like Weems does this to suggest that the woman is the center of the disfunction and bears the biggest burden in the relationship. She may be doing this because of the fact that women are typically the victims in male/female relationships and in this case her racial identity and gender place her in a very victimized role. I think the phone at the head of the table also suggests that she is waiting for someone. Perhaps the man in the previous photo? Regardless, I believe that the theme that Weems is trying to convey in this picture is the fact woman are often unnecessarily and excessively victimized by society and in their relationships, which forced the woman in this picture to retreat into a solemn and substantially fueled depression.