Floods and Photo-Ops A Visual Historiography Approach

Abstract

Throughout the history of photography, visual communicators have assigned meaning to the significant images produced by the medium. But as Michael Lesy in the classic Wisconsin Death Trip and others have shown, a valued analysis can also be accomplished by closely analyzing ordinary photographs. By concentrating on two pictures from the 1927 and 2005 Mississippi environmental catastrophes, this work will show how politicians have used media events to their political advantage. Through a visual historiography methodology, two ordinary photographs will illuminate little known details about the two disasters, the field of political photography, as well as the two American political leaders and the differences in media coverage between the two eras.

Lester's article was submitted and accepted for publication before he was named the editor of Visual Communication Quarterly.

Notes

Lester's article was submitted and accepted for publication before he was named the editor of Visual Communication Quarterly.

¹Literary and Historical Notes,” January 4, 2006, par. 11)

²The author conveys special thanks to Lynn Smith, A-V Archivist for the Hoover Presidential Library and her associate Jim Detlefsen. The picture was retrieved December 4, 2005 from www.ecommcode2.com/hoover/research/photos/images/1927–59A.gif with its caption, “Hoover visits children in a refugee camp during the 1927 Mississippi flood.”

³The photo gallery was retrieved December 4, 2005 from www.mvd.usace.army.mil/hurricane/chr.php while the picture itself was retrieved the same day from www.mvd.usace.army.mil/hurricane/KatrinaImages/bush2000.jpg.