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| from LIFE, May 12, 1947, by Ralph Crane . . . |
WHAT'S IN A PICTURE.. .
Man is chasing boy. That is the simple fact of this scene taken in a home for maladjusted children. But the picture makes us uneasy. Why did the photographer use such camera distortion to re-enact this incident? Why did he light the subject so ominously? What is he trying to say?
If we had been there, would we have been so disturbed by the scene? Possibly we would have smiled at this naked urchin scampering down the prison-like corridor long after he ought to have been in bed.
The photographer is trying to tell us what brought about this situation. The boy is a troubled child running away from himself because he is unhappy and maladjusted. The man, menacing and enormous, is the ogre of authority the boy is always trying to evade.
Photography is a record of the here and now, but pictures can suggest and symbolize as well as portray. They make us see beyond the surface facts. Pictures like this are prods to the conscience, giving immediacy to problems we should not forget.
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