Samantha Mudd
Visual Analysis
May 19th 2010
Visual Analysis
Blues music has influenced almost every style of music that you hear today. The roots from blues music date back to the late 1800’s starting with mostly African Americans in the Deep South. B.B. King, Eric Clapton, W.C. Handy, and many other blues artists were highly influenced by the starting points from everyday working men singing the blues on their porch. The start of blues consisted of mostly African Americans singing and chanting during work during the times of slavery, and guitars were the only instruments permitted by slave owners at the time, which contributes to why this image is a perfect representation of the start of the blues era.
The image of the old man is in black and white signaling the desire to be an old picture. The man is dressed in old raggedy clothes, a top hat, and very old shoes. He has something around his neck which looks like a bandanna or a handkerchief. He is sitting down in a rocking chair with a guitar in his lap looking as if he is about to play a song and behind him, there is a screen door, which looks torn and very old, and rocking chair is broken, which adds to the age of this photo. His guitar has very long strings which look to have been replaced a few times. The rocking chair is another old-looking item in this image, which is broken on the arm rest and the wood looks worn. The design of the rocking chair looks to be a very old technique too, with a straw, or what seems to look like straw as the back rest. This man is very old and has a very interesting look upon his face, which appears somewhat confused and puzzled. His mouth is somewhat open and has a slight grey mustache. With his mouth open, you can almost see he is possibly missing some teeth. He has a guitar slide on his left ring finger and no guitar pick in his right hand.
He is sitting on a porch which is a wood porch, and judging by the shadows, looks like a covered front porch. The old man looks as if he is keeping a beat to start up a song by slapping his hand on the guitar. It also appears that he is keeping rhythm with his foot by tapping it against the old wooden porch floor. All of these attributes of the picture are showing that the man may be playing an old blues song, which I get the feeling of as I stared at the picture.
The picture reminds me of New Orleans and Louisiana because of the “bluesy” feel of it. The guitar slide gives it away too, many blues songs use the slide, and it was very popular in the start of the blues era. Blues music started out being called “country blues” because of the large number of African Americans in levee camps or plantations throughout the south. The majority of blues is associated with African Americans because of the mixtures of African music, work songs, religious, and some other hollers they sang while working. Most country blues songs used the acoustic guitar because of its wide variety of sounds it could make, and their owners permitted them, and not to mention they were not unaffordable like some are today. As blues music spread throughout northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and many others, piano and harmonica were being used also to add a variety of sounds to their songs. Later in history, artists such as Jimmy Hendrix (The Jimmy Hendrix Experience), Eric Clapton (C.R.E.A.M.), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) have all used the aspects and instruments of blues music to acquire their own unique style. As these artists use the basics of blues music in their own songs, this opened a variety of options of style throughout rock and blues music. Seeing this man with an acoustic guitar, the picture black and white, and a very old detailed setting, this is way before all these artists time. Also adding to the guitar, it has very long strings on it which shows that the strings have been replaced, possibly more than once. Guitar strings are replaced due to bending strings, using a lot of the slide; particularly the steel slide which wears the strings, finger-plucking too hard and simply playing too much. All of these things are involved with blues music, which makes it believable this man is playing the blues. Blues music started with acoustic, and after the war it started incorporating electric guitar into the songs. So seeing this man with acoustic guitar and a guitar slide, the image could very well be from before the war in early 1900’s or late 1800’s.
The photographer captured more than a picture in this image; they captured an era in history. The era of when blues started to get big was a major past time in America because of the war, and equality rights. The man in this image looks as if he was owned as a slave and put to work all day in a field possibly, because of his clothes, old shoes and the look upon his face. The frustrated and confused look on his face tells a story within itself. Although it could be just of old age struggling to sit up straight in the chair, it could also be of his song he’s playing. Many people make awkward faces when they are singing, and this could very well be susceptible to it. The time was rough for African Americans also which could also trigger a certain type of song which he could be playing.
In this picture, the photographer captured the image at a perfect distance. The distance that the man was at captured everything down to the details within the image, which is exactly what people look at. As you look at the picture it shows the whole man and everything around him. The distance is important because it shows the whole man from top to bottom and left to right, adding to that, it also shows the setting around him which contributes the majority of the feeling from the picture. Showing a little bit of the rocking chair, a little bit of the busted old screen door, and his old raggedy shoes he’s wearing really shows the culture of this man’s life which gives off a blues-type feel. The space between the camera and the subject really shows off the whole man’s body, which I feel is all very important to the meaning behind the picture.
The camera is positioned slightly to the left of center of the man, which strictly emphasizes that the picture is completely about the man. The fact that the guitar is in the center of the whole picture, gives a hint that this picture is about music. Seeing as a level camera view often represents equality, the photographer could very well be sending a message behind this image also, seeing as the blues era started in the slavery times. The man’s face also suggests a struggling and exhausted look which could possibly be from working in the fields all day, but could very well be him belting out a blues song. These two attributes suggest a struggle, and his blues guitar could be taking all his pain away to make him happier.
As you zoom out from all the details from this picture, you could find yourself unknowingly playing the eyes of someone else in this scene. The subjective shot of the man is not looking straight into his eyes, but could possibly be representing a person of an audience maybe listening to the old man play a tune on his front porch. The photographer could have very well wanted to capture the feeling of being involved within the picture, and play it out in your head as you stare into the picture. Playing this out may call for a few questions, such as, what kind of song is he playing? Or maybe what are the lyrics to the song he is playing? Also, what does the setting look like in the perspective of the old man? These kinds of questions were almost meant to be asked as you put yourself into this scene.
The photographer uses a few different techniques to make this image unique and to show a certain feel to the audience as they view it. Starting from behind the image, the background of the man, a screen door leading into the house, is somewhat blurry and vague. This displays the main focus of the man and his guitar, which are both very clear and detailed. On the screen door you can hardly see some of the chicken wire on the bottom half of the screen door, and the guitar strings are clear as day showing again, that the image can be referring to music. Also, adding to the conflict between the vague background and the crisp man in the image; his shoes, clothes, and hat all have dirt on them which you can clearly see. His shoes are much worn, and you can see the wrinkles and shadows covering the whole shoe. The photographer probably chose to bring out all the details of the man in this image because of his emphasis on the subject of the picture. Adding to the age of the picture, the photographer chose to make it black and white. Black and white filter can give impressions of old times, and to alter the mood. The photographer might have chosen the black and white filter to show the impression of the equality issues of the time period. The man is the main focus, and he/she wants to show every detail to attempt to describe the time period, music era, and conflict issues through the picture.
After researching into the picture, the man is Furry Lewis, an American blues musician from back in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The picture really influences you to think of what this image really is about. Is it about music, equality, freedom, or just to capture the joy of playing the blues? Blues music started out as field hollers and work songs which eventually turned into one of the most unique genres of music. The acoustic guitar represents the possible concept of slavery because of the strict limitation of instruments under the rule of their owners, and the guitar slide strongly suggests it was a blues song. Slavery, acoustic guitars, guitar slides, chants, work songs, and simple rhyming hollers all contributed to the creation of blues music, which exists within many other genres today. Furry Lewis and many other men who were influenced from their roots of broken rocking chairs, guitars, and guitar slides, bending strings, working hard and singing songs, all wrote their own unique page in the big beautiful book of blues culture.
