Momentous or Mundane

Terror.  There is no other way to describe the looks on the two women's faces besides pure terror.  This image did a fantastic job in exaggerating the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that apparently "rattled buildings... and forced workers to flee as ceiling tiles and moldings crumbled and crashed to the ground."  At first glance, I believe it!  I believe that these women were forced into the streets in hopes of escaping from the terrible quake.  Even though this was not at all the experience most American University students or nearby DC residents experienced, this image makes it seem like the entire district was in chaos.  That is the exact message the Washington Post wanted to spread. 

As a consumer it is the terror that one sees, but as a photographer the first thing one may notice is the off-center placement of the women.  This is an archetype, a universal constant in the world of photography.  Asymmetrical compositions allows the reader more visual stimulation than if this picture were symmetrical.

Further along in the article, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate claimed, "...our immediate next thought was is it a bomb blast...” The two women in the forefront of the photograph appear so terror-stricken that a bomb blast seems like a logical explanation for this.  The photographer utilized his knowledge of emotion and how it impacts the viewer to create this eye-catching image and convey the emotion of terror.

The two women also seem incredibly confused.  In the article, a child says, “The Navy Yard needs a better mass communication system...They have loud speakers on some of the buildings (they call the system Big Voice), but when they use it, the sound just echoes around the buildings and gets muddled, so it’s impossible to understand what they’re saying.”  This description of mass confusion is clearly supported by the women in back grasping onto the women closest to the camera out of desperation.  By utilizing the woman's strength and desperation in the grasp, the photographer created a sense of impending movement, making the photograph more dynamic.

Although this picture portrays the Washington Post's "view" on the earthquake, it aggrandizes the severity of the earthquake in reality.  The media, in this case, is manufacturing fear in order to increase sales; making what seemed to most as mundane and unimportant into something that is momentous and possibly life-threatening.