The Subliminal Message

       Last May 2015, I attended Leonard Freed’s exhibition in the High Museum of Art. It was one of my best experiences that opened my eyes on learning about new parts of the American history, especially in the southern area, and the civil right movement. This photograph, Harlem New York, got my attention, and I fell in love with it.

Leonard Freed, Harlem, New York, 1963

         African Americans were not only fighting the high temperature in the summer of 1963, but they were also fighting for their rights. At that time, the Civil Rights Movement had arisen and Martin Luther King gave his famous influential “I Have a Dream” speech.

         “Why I am photographing? It is the desire of retaining my sanity, the exploration of the mind’s limit and man’s limitation. I wish to preserve, to contain, to measure, and to expand. I photograph strangers, the shell of things, not mind,” Leonard Freed once said.

         I personally think Freed’s wishes came true, through this picture. For once, he preserved, if not immortalized, African Americans, at least in these pictures. He contained so much love and emotions in a single picture; and he expanded people’s understanding of freedom, and rights.

He was able to capture and show how tight the mom was holding her child. It seems as if the mother is saying, through her body language, “I am not letting go of my child, this is our moment, and this is how we enjoy it together.” In a way, she is also saying, “I am not letting go of my rights, this is our land, and this is how we will face society.” A sense of love spreads in this picture, giving it a peaceful atmosphere. The movement of splashing water creates an astonishing visual effect as it frames the mother and her child. I believe that the combination of the black and white colors in the Photograph makes it even more meaningful. The importance of bringing together these two colors, in the aesthetic and racial contexts, should be considered when looking at this photograph. I agree with Freed’s view that “black and white gives him the structure. Color would take away the personality of the people.” It might be because color is distracting, and thus it redirects the attention from the story behind a photograph to the mere aesthetics of it. Regardless of whether this explanation holds true or not, there is something about black and white pictures that draws your attention to the story behind it, told by the people in it. Unconsciously, my eyes immediately go straight to the mother and her child when I look at this black and white picture. I see at least parts of their personalities as I stare at their facial expressions.