ICP Photograph

Here is a description of a photograph that I noticed at ICP. This photo particularly stuck out amongst the many because of the prominence of the man in the photo. Many of the photos had numerous people in it. This one is of  one man- full of emotion and very powerful. The description I detailed here is a my try at jotting down everything that I saw (not felt) in the photograph (the way I understood Prof Ugoretz’s explanation of the assignment).Try picturing the photograph before you view the picture I found of it online (and let me know if my description was adequate/detailed enough and enabled you to “picture the photograph” or not).

Photo by Margaret Bourke White, American (1904-1971)

Photo of  Native Carpenter Philip Mbhele wearing “We Don’t Want Passes” tag (1950)

The photograph is black and white. The background is a sky. A man takes up most of the foreground of the photograph. The sky is full of clouds- dark gray clouds- ominous/ rain cumulus clouds. Lighter gray clouds are seen above the man’s left shoulder.The man is black. He has a furrowed brow and is looking skyward. His mouth is wide open: yelling something or crying out. He is missing one of his from teeth. A tear is at the outer corner of his right eye. He has a bald head. He has large ears that protrude outwards. He has a small mustache. A shadow is cast on the lower part of his chin (where his chin meets his neck). He takes up the whole front of the photograph and appears to be close to the camera lens (or zoomed in on); he overbears the picture.
His eyes are serious and full of emotion. His eyes meet above his nose in a two wrinkles. He is leaning slightly backwards into the background. The inner right side of his mouth is bright and the left side is shadowed.
He is positioned as coming in from the left side of the photograph and comes until just about an inch of the bottom right of the photo. He has thick eyebrows, large eyes, and his flared nostrils and open mouth face the camera. He has a cleft in the center of his chin. His lips are cracked, especially in the lower lip’s center. There is a shadow over the right side of his head an he is leaning down toward his right shoulder.
He is wearing a light colored button down with the top button open and the edges if the collar aren’t ironed/curl upward. Over that is a cable knit sweater of a dark color, covering the shirt (except for a tiny bit below the top button) and the collar is above the sweater. Over that he is wearing a heavy, wool jacket: plaid pattern, medium color with darker grid lines. The light is on the right side of the jacket. The jacket has a folded lapel. One button hole is seen, opened. The photograph goes until his high waist. It seems like the jacket is buttoned below that.
On the left side of his lapel, there is a tag. It is dog eared at its corners. It reads “we don’t want passes.” The background is pure white, with light gray letters. The letters are capitalized, serif font. The first line reads, “WE DON’T WANT.” Then, on a second line, in a bolder, heavier and darker font- strong serif, very heavy bold/thick- it says “PASSES.” The tag is pinned to his jacket. Two pieces of the metal peek through to the front side of the tag: in center of two lines, once below the D and once below the T (of don’t, smaller piece). The left bottom corner is the most turned up.
The entire right arm and shoulder is seen, straight jacket, stiff padded shoulder. On his left side , only his shoulder and through his upper arm is seen. There is no background on the left side of the photograph; the man enters the photo from this side. The photograph has a slight tear on its side, opposite his right ear, and a second tear, by his left lower shoulder.

Photo found on art.com (original image from LIFE archives)