Speaking Through Silence

In No Caption Needed Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites argue that iconic images create cultural identity.  In examining specific photos which represent moments which have become iconic for national memory and identity, Hariman and Lucaites trace the production and presentation of these photos that first raised them to iconic status, and then examines how each particular image examined has shaped public memory and civic culture in ways that differ from those who participated (subjects, photographers, new agencies, etc.).  Within this process, it is the concept of anonymity which seems to be one of the most significant aspects in the creation of the iconic image.

An iconic image must be able to secure the emotional attention of the viewer and create a sense of empathy or awe over the subjects presented.  In “Migrant Mother,” the Depression era picture of a struggling migrant woman and her children, the anonymity of the subject allows for such empathy and awe.  Hariman and Lucaites note that “for those who initially encountered this photograph in the 1930s, the ‘Migrant Mother’ captured a profound, generalized sense of vulnerability while simultaneously providing a localized means for breaking its spell” (49)  It is only in being anonymous that this image can provide a generalized and iconic message.  Indeed, once Migrant Mother’s identity is revealed (Florence Owens) in the late 1970s, once Owens gives a voice and a specificity to Migrant Mother, the image loses both its power and iconic status, no longer able to represent the plight of the general public (or, even, of a historical era) once she becomes a real (and bitter) person to the public.  It is not until her death in the early 1980s that the image becomes iconic once again.

With Owens death cane the subject’s silence.  No longer able to speak for herself, no longer able to voice her dissatisfaction over the image, the picture is able to return to a silent portrayal of public identity.  In this photo an emotional microcosm represents for the public an entire historical era , but that spell breaks once the anonymity of the subject is broken.

This makes me wonder at the formation of iconic images.  Anonymity allows for viewer to read into the subject, to transfer their empathy to the subject of the photograph.  Anonymity allows for the view to experience with the subject what is emotionally evoked by the subject.  Once the subject becomes a complex human being, with beliefs and personality traits uniquely individual, the subject becomes real.  In becoming real, it loses its ability to impart the empathic message to the generalized audience, and in losing this ability, it seems that the image loses its power to represent shared culture.   It is only in a subject’s silence that the image speaks.