First Blog! Wing Young Huie

My first blog post!

For this post, I'll be looking at this picture from Wing Young Huies Lake Street USA album.
The picture was taken at the corner of Chicago and Lake in Minneapolis, MN.

On First Glance

        Objectively looking at the photography first thing I notice is the sidewalk and the wall meeting at a corner. On the right side I see a black man in a jacket and three others huddled further down the sidewalk. On the corner's right side I see three old white people, one man and two women. The picture seems rather neutral at first glance, and perhaps only aims to convey an image displaying daily life in the city.

On further Inspection

      Analyzing it further, Huie's message with this photography becomes obviously very quickly. The corner is both physically and metaphorically representing a divide in the citizens. While the white people are on one side, a few black men and others are isolated, out of sight, by the sidewalk's corner. Interestingly enough, also depicted in the photography is the phrase "The Society" on the left wall. Huie, most likely intentionally, cut off the rest of the phrase leaving only "The Society" within the photograph. The phrase is likely meant to communicate to the reader that the image is representative of society and its isolation between the races. The corner creates a sense of "othering" in regards to the black man, that perpetuates this notion. Also noteworthy is that the phrase is depicted on the side of the corner with the white people. Though a stretch, I suspect that even that may have been intentional in Huie's attempt to align the white people with society and the black with that of outsiders, merely tolerated so long as they are out of sight.

A quick connection to The Handmaid's Tale
      Personally, this photography is reminiscent of the Handmaid's isolation within Gilead. Though not racial in its reasoning, the Handmaids are similarly ignored even in close proximity to other people. The scene with Offred and Guardians comes to mind, as they are physically separated by a barrier and the Guardians present only to admit them, avoid eye contact.