Alec Goldstein

Rhetorical Analysis of Susan Meiselas War Photograph

Susan Meiselas became an important figure in my life completely on accident. In
January of 2014 my high school band was scheduled to perform a rendition of
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and I decided to do a little bit of research into
what specific instruments I would be needing to transpose for. I wasnt giving it my
absolute full attention and accidentally let my computer auto-correct the text to Pictures
from a Revolution. I was intrigued to look down at my monitor and instead of seeing a
bunch of links for sheet music I saw these pictures; these images were so strong, the
lighting and locations were just so perfect they made me feel things I never thought an
impersonal photograph could make me feel. I immediately forgot about that stupid
music thing I was doing and completely encapsulated myself in photos that made me
think about things Ive never thought of before. That tiny mistake I made on that night of
January of 2014 changed the way I looked at photographs forever. That small typo I
happened to miss while using Google made the name Susan Meiselas represent
forward thinking and make the contextual and compositional analysis of photographs
relevant in my life. It is because of this that I feel more than confident in analyzing the

following Susan Meiselas photograph of a 1991 Kurdish trench grave during her visit to
Sulaimaniyah during the time of the then revolutionary Iraqi civil war.
The 1991 Iraqi civil war was a bloody chain of battles fought over the course of
one month. The fighting was forced to end after the almost unbelievable amount of
casualties due to the nature of fighting a non-uniformed civilian led front and the
Hussein Regimes callous lack of care for the preservation of human life. Renowned war
photographer Susan Meiselas bravely stepped into the front lines, shoulder to shoulder
with others doing the exact same thing she was doing. Sure, Susan had a camera in her
hand as opposed to a rifle but she was fighting for freedom the same way the Rebel
Insurgents were; they put their lives on the line to expose the truth about the Hussein
Regime and to unearth the atrocities that were being committed on Iraqi soil. Susan
Meiselas traveled across the war-torn villages of Iraq documenting and immortalizing
what these brave men were fighting so hard to make sure their children never had to
see.
When looking through the hundreds of pictures Meiselas took, this one specific
picture stuck out to me. It seems as though this particular photograph had extensive use
of three distinct literary devices- although all three devices are branches of the same
device of imagery they are used well enough as to where they fluidly express three
separate ideas. The compounded branches of Vectors of Attention, Gaze, and Visual
Metaphor are all used to express the aforementioned purpose of Susan Meiselas
rationale behind taking and publishing these photographs. Below is a side by side
comparison of the original photograph taken by Susan Meiselas in 1991 and an edited
version of the same photograph used to make clear these literary elements she used.
Meiselas used these literary elements to further her point and project her purpose of
taking these photos: to expose the truth about the Hussein Regime and unearth the
atrocities being committed in the middle east.

(Susan Meiselas/ Kurdish Trench Grave/ 1991)

We should begin this analysis with the first and most outstanding element
used by Susan Meiselas which are the vectors of attention. Highlighted in red,
the vectors of attentions are physical lines which draw the audiences attention
towards their end point. Using these effectively allows the photographer to
manipulate the audiences view making them subconsciously see what the
photographer is consciously pointing out to them. In this specific photograph, for
instance, Meiselas makes ingenious use out of two very prominent figures in the
picture to draw the viewer's immediate line of sight straight to the graves which
had just been dug. Meiselas makes great use of the shovels sticking out of each
individual grave and uses her photography to reinforce the meaning behind the
mans arm in the very front of the photograph to point out that the main message
behind this picture lies within the horrific illegal trench dug graves right in front of
the viewers face. Even more so, the spacial relationship between Meiselas and
her subject (the man pointing) is so close, that together with the angle of her
camera Meiselas appears to link the viewers line of sight to absolutely make

sure they do not miss the initial trench grave (then of course the initial grave
allows the viewer to look farther to see the other six graves filled).
Following the strategy of Susan Meiselas to link two vectors of attention to
assure the viewer doesnt miss the point she is trying to make, Meiselas also
makes use of gaze to tie together these two branches of imagery. The first
examples of gaze are represented by the two crossing blue lines leaving the
eyes of the two men on the left. This example is very straightforward and very
self explanatory; looking at the eyes of these men, like you would in a real life
social situation, you see that they are both looking at something else and
naturally you are curious to see what it is so you look also. These gazes, like the
vectors of attention, draw your view towards the graves. The second and more
fascinating use of gaze by Susan Meiselas is a subdivision of gaze called a
connecting gaze. A connecting gaze uses the same logic that normal gaze does
except instead of drawing the viewers attention straight towards the ultimate
location Meiselas would like for them to see, it brings the viewers attention to an
alternate gaze or vector of attention, allowing the viewer to further down the path
of sight a little more before reaching the final visual destination. These
connecting gazes are represented in the edited photograph by the purple lines
seen coming from the three men on the left connecting to the shovel, cane, and
fourth man standing on the right side of the graves.
The third major element used by Susan Meiselas in her photography is
metaphor. Meiselas uses metaphor in two very distinct ways in this photo. The
first way she uses metaphor is a direct approach which immediately draws the
viewer into her intended process of thought. The mens faces circled in green are
all representations of what Susan Meiselas is trying to get across to the viewer;
all these men are making eye contact with the viewer, they are humanizing
themselves and making the situation they are in more realistic. Humanizing
victims is Meiselas way if engaging the audience and connecting to them on as
personal of a level as she could get. The second way Meiselas uses metaphor in
this photograph is present in the absence and presence of lively civilization in the
top corners of her photograph, represented by the black highlighted boxes. The

top left box represents the barrenness and emptiness of the Iraqi area. It
represents the lack of lawfulness and the emptiness within these rebel soldiers
fighting for what they believe to be right. The box in the top right shows the other
side of the war, it represent structure and possibly what they could lose if they do
not fight for their homes (This specific city of Sulaimaniyah was the rebel military
base of operations so it represented more than just a civilized city).
Susan Meiselas uses many branches of literary devices to make sure the
viewer of her photograph gets the message she is trying to convey. Meiselas
uses vectors of attention, gazes, and metaphor to make sure that the viewer is
aware of the the truth about the Hussein Regime and the atrocities being
committed in the middle east. Although these photographs were taken over 25
years ago they act as great artifacts in the museum that is modern
photography.These pictures are great examples of how a photographer can
manipulate the viewer to feel a certain way about certain issues, an invaluable
skill capable of too much to ignore. The photograph featured in this essay is
being displayed on both her website and in the town of Sulaimaniyah where the
picture was taken. The only evidence of this photograph being housed anywhere
but on her website is in a footnote on her website about how all her photographs
were included in the charity she gave the town after they allowed her to stay with
them and kept her safe during times of conflict.