Depth of a Photo
Johnny Cash is a mysterious man, just one obscene gesture can determine how others view him.
Every photograph taken tells a different story. Photographs can portray more than what is truly shown. We can analyze an image not only for the way a person poses but by their appearance, props used or shown, words placed on the pictures, icons, or anything that the naked eye can see presented in front of them. We analyze to determine what a photographer is truly trying to capture but also what they aren’t. Depicting elements of the picture can be one of the most particular parts of analyzing a piece of photography. By doing so we can interpret the meanings behind a photo. Looking at the magazine advertisement showing recognition of Johnny Cashs’ winning Grammy award album “Unchained”, we can uncover a lot by the way the photographer portrays him. The magazine article of Johnny Cash goes to show who Johnny truly is as a person and portrays his outlooks towards others.
In the advertisement, Johnny is seen holding up an unruly gesture. This is directed towards the photographer as Johnny is performing in front of a crowd at San Quentin prison, one of his most common venues. The photograph shows him in what seems to be a zip-down shirt and a pair of jeans, very common for a blue-collar worker during this time, 1998, and doesn’t seem dressed fairly nice or put well together. You can see his hair in a mess and the clothes aren’t the nicest. This may cause the reader to question what this advertisement is truly about. All we see is a man with a guitar, with a grumpy look on his face, being rude to the photographer.
When we continue to analyze this photograph we see an acknowledgment from Johnny and his record company in the left-hand corner and a label for “WINNER BEST COUNTRY ALBUM” with a grammy award symbol between “Winner” and “Best” in the bottom right-hand corner. This is the only identifying factor of what the advertisement is truly portraying to the magazine’s audience. As we continue to look into the depths of this photo you can see an upside-down American flag in the bottom left-hand corner which is known to mean dire distress or extreme danger to life or property.
With many different attributes, a picture can hold many different meanings. As stated prior there are also words on this advertisement that may draw attraction to a reader, not just the picture itself. The photographer chose an obscene meaning photo as Johnny portrays a sign for flipping someone or something off. This can be taken in many different ways whether this action is towards the photographer, the audience, or the public in general. We can identify that the meaning of this is, more than likely, to the people who didn’t support Cash as it says in small print at the bottom right-hand corner “Thanks to those who made a difference — you know who you are.” This allows the audience to gain their own opinion of what this advertisement may truly mean.
A viewpoint that some readers and viewers may acquire with this image would be, is Johnny performing at San Quentin, or is he in prison at this time and just happens to be performing? With Johnny’s musical reputation he was seen as someone who has done time in jail or experienced what some of his songs portray, which is incorrect proven by a magazine article by Daniel Geary, states “A common misperception of Cash was that he had done a hard time. In fact, he had only spent a few nights in jail” (Geary 67). The article goes on to say that Johnny used his music to empathize with the inmates and allow them to relate to some form of music. He was very successful in doing so, as many of his recordings took place in a prison with inmates cheering and applauding during his performance.
The photographer captured a moment in time where Johnny was performing for an audience that cared about his music. During the time of the album that was being celebrated many people were not fans of his music and the gesture shown was aimed towards that audience, which is reflected by the statement on the image “Thanks to those who made a difference — you know who you are.” This is one of the many ways this image can be understood.
“A common misperception of Cash was that he had done a hard time. In fact, he had only spent a few nights in jail”
With the obscene gesture Johnny shows the camera during this picture, it is quite uncommonly seen in magazines, but this one was inserted into a magazine for many people to observe. When these pictures are inserted into any type of publication it can cause uprisings.
For proof, we see this in National News as MP Ron Mark makes the same gesture as the one Johnny makes in this photo. It is then reported that Mr.Mark’s gesture “sparked a flurry of finger-pointing of a different kind” (Watkins A2). When people of any stature exhibit this gesture it can come off in many different ways. No one can truly interpret what Johnny may have meant when demonstrating this behavior.
Another part of the image to take into consideration is the wording on the image stating “American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support.” A reader may wonder why this was in such big lettering and a part of the image. American Recordings was a large part of Johnny’s career. He joined the label in 1993 after he was dropped from Columbia and Mercury. Robert Hilburn wrote a periodical article about Johnny’s discovery of American Recordings and how Rick Rubin impacted his career. In the article Hilburn quotes Rubin saying “ ‘ It was something that sounded like it was coming from someplace deep inside of him. It was epic, that’s what Johnny was to me — epic.’” (Hilburn 50)
This was a restart for Johnny’s career, and only by knowing the true history would you know the story behind it and why the recording company and Johnny both thanked these establishments for their support. This is one of the many meanings behind this image.
“ ‘ It was something that sounded like it was coming from someplace deep inside of him. It was epic, that’s what Johnny was to me — epic.’”
Images can sometimes or all the time give off many different meanings, to each viewer there is another story behind it. Johnny Cashs’ photograph of an obscene gesture can hold many meanings behind it. We can observe this in many ways, by the wording on the image in many different places, the place where it was taken, and the obscene gesture itself. By exploring the depths of a photograph and truly analyzing it can give the reader a deeper understanding of what the image may truly represent.
Each image has the power to open up a person’s mind to outstanding amounts of possibilities, this is shown in this photograph as Johnny Cash is a very mystical man and will forever be “Unchained” to society but chained to his roots.