Hurricane Katrina and Its Photographs: Racism or Representation?

Part 1: Introduction

            Aim, focus, and snap. That's how a photograph is taken, but have we ever thought what actually happens in our brains and what kind of effects it can have on other viewers? Although one may think we have total control over a photograph, it may be surprising to realize that it can have greater effects than the original intentions the actual photographer had. In such cases as the photographs taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is evident that there is a sense of racism that can be found within the photographs. However, it is unlikely that the photographer consciously created the photograph to look that. In order to fully understand how this racism enters the photograph and affects the viewers, I will be explaining the background information about Hurricane Katrina then using Lorraine Fuller’s critical framework from her essay “Modern Racism or Representative Picture” to prove that the current media’s usage of film and photography is a form of ‘modern’ racism.

To begin with, catastrophic Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in late August and devastated many cities, one of which was New Orleans. As the harsh storm hit, the water eventually broke loose and the city of New Orleans was to be doomed. With the water rushing in, the city sunk and nothing could be done as water reached to even 12 miles inland. As a result of this, the citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast suffered greatly. Approximately 1800 lives were lost and many other damages were done. As a hurricane would, buildings were damaged and flooded, factories and refineries were destroyed releasing a great amount of oil and toxic gumbo, and the rich marshlands were permanently ruined. The hurricane cost the city approximately up to $105 billion and total economic impact of around $150 billion. To sum it up, the city was devastated and people hopeless. To record this tragedy photojournalists, news, and media rushed in to document the disaster but how did they do it?

"Looters hit a drug store..." AFP

The photo shown above is a prime example of what happened in the media after Katrina. According to Fuller, photographs are supposed to be ‘representative pictures.’ These pictures are defined as “news coverage that depicts all races of people in the community without a stereotypical depiction” (Fuller 264). However this photo used by the AFP is clearly not serving justice in Fuller’s terms. Although its documenting what the situation is in the present, it is reinforcing the stereotype that blacks generally commit more crimes and therefore would ‘loot’ a store. To further analyze this photo semiologically, we can even say that although the intentions of the photographer is to capture the woman in the middle with the bags of ‘looted’ groceries, everyone else in the frame that is being captured is similarly black as well. This tells us that this ‘looter’ title applies to everyone else at the same time. As a result of these kind of photographs, blacks and other minorities are associated with negative stereotypes and this new form of racism is born: modern racism (Fuller 269). This form of racism doesn’t explicitly target certain populations, however it is done more implicitly and hidden in such ways like stereotyping.

Part 2: From Neighbors to Criminals

"Two residents wade through chest deep water after finding bread and water" -AFP

"A young man walks through chest deep water after looting a grocery" -AP

A boy is protected and kept warm by an American flag after Hurricane Katrina

Katrina victims sitting on the road as they

"A looter carries a bucket of beer out of a grocery" -AP

           

            After Hurricane Katrina, one of the biggest problems was the photography and how it conveyed different races. If one race were pointed out for some detail in the news, it wouldn't necessarily cause a problem, but when media covers two different races in a different way it starts to matter. In the photographs following Katrina many photos depicted the minorities doing one thing while the whites were doing something else.

In the pair of photos shown above, it is almost exactly the same image other than the fact that one picture is of a black man and the other is of a white couple. They are both the same victims of Hurricane Katrina in the same situation doing the exact same thing, finding food and shelter for survival. However that is not what the captions tell us. In the photo of the white people, it states “Two residents wade through chest deep water after finding bread and water” (Agence France-Presse). In the photo with the black man, it states “A young man walks through chest deep water after looting a grocery store” (Associated Press). These two captions read almost exactly the same except the fact that one reads ‘looting’ (associated with the young black man) and the other is ‘finding’ (associated with the white residents). This shows how the news, media and photography are creating this correlation between race and stereotype. From this we can say that this photograph “reflects predetermined notions about minorities and thus perpetuate traditional myths about race” (Fuller 270).  By using captions and photographs they are making quick assumptions about these individuals that they barely know about and making conclusions based on race.

Although the comparison between the races has a negative effect, it can also cause people to start viewing other photographs differently as well. In the photographs shown above, an average viewer would not think anything critical pertaining to racism. On the other hand, they would look at the image and think about equality, as they would notice how the American Flag is covering the child. This shows how America isn’t just about the whites but about every race and color. However the effects of the other photographs are so immense that it can cause us to start doubting what the image actually tells us. From the previous photograph, we are told that the blacks ‘loot’ the stores. With this told to us, this “[photographic] racial representation help to mold public opinion then hold it in place” (Fuller 268). So because of the effects of the other photographs we view, we naturally start to overlap the first image with the second. Soon after, this “persistence of stereotypes that creeps into [photographs]” (Fuller268) eventually controls our thoughts and begins to alter our ways of viewing the image. In the end we can’t tell apart the differences and whether or not we see a young man that is claimed to be ‘looting’, or homeless victims sitting quietly on the highway, or even a small child whose covered in the American Flag, they start to become categorized as the same and we can’t tell apart our neighbors from the criminals.

Part 3: The View from Above

President Bush looking down on New Orleans from a plane after Katrina

Police Officer taking aim at possible looters on the highway

Police Officers arresting a black man after Katrina for looting

            The last set of images tells us one more thing about racism. As we view these sets of photographs, there is a recurring theme in all of them. In each picture, we can say that there is a hierarchy of races that is shown within the image. This is done “through selection, framing, and language… [and] effects the individual’s way of thinking over time” (Fuller 268). Looking at each photograph, it is carefully manipulated to show the racial balance between whites and blacks.

            In the photograph of the man surrounded by officers, it shows the black man being arrested by several white police officers. This equates the white man with the police officer who has power and the arrested criminal with the black man. This sets up a social hierarchy that tells us that the white officers are superior to the blacks when they should be at the same level. This is further argued in the next image where the policeman has a gun in his hands and aiming towards something on the highway. Although this is just documenting the fact that crimes occurred and police officers were trying to stop crime, we can read the small signs in the photo to argue another meaning out of the photograph. Again similar to the previous analysis, the black man is on the ground while the officer is above him with a gun. Although the man is not being arrested it still shows that the power exists in the police officer’s hands and the only thing the black man can do is lye on the ground and protect his self. After the photograph was released and after officials confirmed everything, the context of the photograph is found to be misled. In reality, the police officers were given permission to shoot ‘looters’ and from this, there were six black men shot to death when they were completely innocent.

            Lastly the photograph of President Bush says so much about racism. To begin with, he is on a plane looking down at the ruins of New Orleans. This suggests that he is above everyone in hierarchy and better than the people down on the ground. Also the fact that he is white, once again, confirms the statement that the white man appears to be better than the blacks. Other than that, since he was the president of the United States, during the Katrina disaster, he represents America as a whole. This means that as a whole, America is looking down upon New Orleans or the black victims of the hurricane. Another sign we can look into is that he is looking through the window of the plane. Although he is looking at the disaster, he is only looking through a lens ,which means that he is seeing something else. Although he is literally looking at New Orleans, he isn’t actually immersed in it with his own eyes on the actual ground level. All together, this photograph represents America as a country that lacks the racial balance and shows the hierarchy and superiority of the white man.

            In conclusion, the photographs of Hurricane Katrina tell us a lot about photography and reveals who we actually are. Although these photographs never intended to have racism involved, the inner thoughts and subconscious seeped out and showed up in the photographs. As a result the photos were inherently racist. As the massive amounts of these photographs were revealed to the public, the racial stereotypes were reinforced and modern racism took effect. Blacks were quoted as being looters while whites were just purely finding the food in order to survive. However it is not too late to try and stop this form of racism. Although we believe that racism is over, we must accept the fact that it still exists in the present day. Instead of hiding from the darkness, we must fight against it consciously understand what we are taking photographs of. If we were to manage this, we would be “aware of the values and true feelings” (Fuller 289) in order to stop ourselves from becoming modern racists and also alter the views of other from mindlessly sending messages of false stereotypes through these images. At the end of the day, we must learn from the mistakes such as our vulnerability that showed during Katrina and not let it happen again.

Works Cited

Fuller, Loraine. “WLBT New in the Deregulation ERA: Modern Racism or Representative Picture”. Journal of Black Studies. JSTOR. March 2005. Web. 12 May 2013