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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Seven: How using words in pictures can expand meaning > Occupation, Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, 2007
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12-JUN-2007

Occupation, Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California, 2007

In the late 1960s, after Alcatraz prison had closed down, hundreds of Native American political activists occupied the island as a symbolic "reservation." The graffiti they left behind can still be seen on the US emblem over the entrance to the prison. The occupiers have cleverly built the world “Free” out of four of the red stripes in the shield. That word is framed in an ironic context. The eagle and shield are symbols of freedom, yet the old prison is not. Historically confined to reservations, Native Americans have suffered imprisonment of another kind. I zoom in on the shield to stress this alteration, and include the crumbling eagle for context. Without the word “Free”, this would be a picture about age and disrepair. With it, the image becomes a political statement.

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Phil Douglis20-Jul-2007 20:34
Thanks, Iris, for defining the three levels at which this image can function. It is a very political image, any way we might choose to interpet it. The more I look at it, the more meaning I see in the juxtaposition of the word free and the crumbling eagle and shield around it. You are right -- that shield was intended to symbolize strength. The word "free" added later, offers an ironic contradiction to the decaying emblem.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)20-Jul-2007 17:54
A very powerful image that can be visited and discussed on three levels: 1) the obvious, the history of Alcatraz where this shield is displayed, 2) the history of this nation vis-a-vis the Native American population and 3) current events and policies enacted by our government. The word "free" provides the link that unifies all three levels. Your image challenges our imagination, gives rise to an important historical debate, allows some to vent their much understood anger and concern with contemporary policies, and, most importantly, makes us think.
Phil Douglis22-Jun-2007 18:35
Thanks, Ceci. You see this image as a very specific, politically oriented metaphor related to current events. I see it as a political statement as well, however I also see it as as going well beyond the issues and government of today. This image reaches back into one of the darkest chapters of our history. You yourself have often commented in other images about the terrible injustices inflicted on the Native American tribes by the United States government. This image is a metaphor for their voice. Even 125 years after the end of the "Indian Wars," the Indian is not free from their economic, political, and social toll. Given this context, the single word "free" replacing the red stripes of the American shield, speaks volumes.
Guest 22-Jun-2007 17:46
To me, this image speaks eloquently of the eroding of American freedoms in the face of the oppressive, myopic, foundering, selfish government currently in the White House. The fact of the hand-drawn letters speaks of a graffiti attempt to remind those in power of our greatest values: freedom of speech and assembly, and the fact that a republic is only as strong as these assurances. We are in a time of disintegration, with a president who cannot own the responsibility for his actions, and with the military-industrial complex at full throttle, where our young men and women are dying daily in a land that doesn't have the faintest clue about freedom, tolerance, compassion or "democracy" -- and perhaps never will. This flaking eagle and its shield speaks to me of the state of the Union.
Phil Douglis21-Jun-2007 18:24
You are right about my caption as context here, Jenene. And that demonstrates another critical aspect of the relationship between words and pictures. What we say in our captions can greatly enhance the value of a photograph to our viewers. It is true that in art photography, the image often works best without words -- because it allows the image to enter the imagination unencumbered with the baggage of fact, history, or associations. But in travel photography, nature photography, portraiture, and photojournalism, a caption can offer a background story that may greatly enhance the way the image expresses its own ideas.
JSWaters21-Jun-2007 04:11
Like Tim, I worry that our freedoms in this country are in danger of eroding as significantly as the paint on the eagle in your image. How ironic to think that all Americans may ultimately suffer the same loss of freedoms as our native peoples. Without your caption as context, this is an image of a closely held American value. With your description, you've woven an inescapable parallel that makes me shudder.
Jenene
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 22:51
I agree. Americans are used to taking their freedoms for granted - yet we are now in a period where those freedoms are in question. And we can also see the metaphorical erosion of freedom expressed in the crumbling eagle as well.
Tim May20-Jun-2007 22:11
Iconic - this image sums up, for me, not only the history of Alcatraz, but some of the history of our nation, and the current use of the national might to curtail our freedoms.
Phil Douglis20-Jun-2007 06:46
Thanks for recognizing the importance of context here, Aloha. To appreciate the meaning of this image, one must understand what the shield and eagle represent, what Alcatraz stood for, as well the story of the occupation and, indeed, the whole sordid history of how America treated its native peoples. The tranformation of the stripes on the shield into the word "free" can then acquire tremendous irony.
Aloha Diao Lavina20-Jun-2007 04:52
This is one of the most complete stories and one of the richest, in one image. And the one word FREE is what makes it the story that it is. The crumbling eagle, the peeling paint, all add to the impact of this image. But the most valuable aspect that makes the word FREE resonate is the context. Without the context, this would not be the political statement that it most effectively is.
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