Guadeloupe Women

This photograph particularly caught my eye because I was curious to know what the story is behind it. First I noticed the dresses they were wearing, then the background of the building, then their facial expressions and where they were looking, and then the position of their hands. Lastly I looked at their shoes. As I kept staring at the picture my eyes kept focusing on the middle woman's facial expression because it seems like she is looking right at the viewer, and the architecture of the building. The extravagant dresses the women are wearing, in front of a large castle-like building imply that the women might be wealthy. When I looked into it online though, I saw this picture on a website for pictures of immigrants at Ellis Island. Obviously these women came to the United States from Guadeloupe, as the title suggests, "Guadeloupe Women." The background information is extremely important in this case because you might think something completely different by basing an analysis solely on how it looks. When examining the photograph, it does not look particularly mysterious, but the mystery seems to lie in the reason for the immigration. The women look angry but not poor, or in any sort of distress, as many immigrants may have been. Another mysterious aspect is the cause of their irritation, and the stare they are exhibiting. 

It is difficult to view on the computer, but each women looks very serious and mad, and definitely a little bit condescending. The middle woman is looking at the camera, while the woman on the right seems to be looking so far to her right that we cannot see her eyes. The woman to the left is also looking to the right. 

The picture definitely conveys a feeling of forced respect through the hard face each woman has on, the overpowering image of the building behind them, the position of their arms, and the clothes they are wearing. They are somewhat authoritative because they are also standing up and in a way looking down; they seem to be saying, "just because I am an immigrant does not mean I will be treated like one" when going through customs and other necessary processes. 

As for the frame, the photo seems pretty balanced and symmetrical, with the shortest woman in the middle and a woman on either side of her. In terms of perspective, the shot seems like it was taken from lower down, which may also convey that feeling of forced respect, the viewer looking up to them. The diagonal line of the building may convey motion, in their case, moving through Ellis Island. The photographer used the rule of thirds because the subject(s) are in the first and second third of the photo. Also, the emphasis seems to be on the woman's face in the middle.