Original Photo

My photo shows two different stories. I cropped out the top of the picture, simply leaving a bus filled with happy white travel goers. The man on the left is even smiling broadly. But looking once more at the original photo we can see there is more to this photo. It not only represents a time of segregation, in which African Americans were made to sit in the back of the bus. It is easy to see the raw emotions of those sitting in the back and in the front. The African American passengers seem discontent and mournful, while the white passengers seem happy and very comfortable. The myth of the photographic truth can be witnessed in these two photographs. In an age of growing digital technology it has become very easy to alter photographs. The original photo conveys a completely different story then the cropped version. By cropping out the African American passengers we are blinded to the hatred and bigotry that is segregation. The photos meaning is changes from opposite ends of the emotional spectrum when the other is revealed. In this case the photographic truth is most certainly hidden or masked when cropping out the upper third of the photograph.