Analyzing a Visual Argument

Running head: Analyzing a Visual Argument
Analyzing a Visual Argument
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KOSOVO SORROW
OVERVIEW
These pictures were taken during the Kosovo war that broke out in 1999. The main reason for the war was ethnic violence between Serbians and Albanians then living within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The background of the war was the break up of Yugoslavia into various ethnic nations. Kosovo was an autonomous region in Serbia with a majority Albanian population living under Serb rule. The Albanians alleging mistreatment and neglect by the Serbian government wanted independence and self determination but the Serbian government would now allow for this to happen. After a tense standoff the region erupted into a vicious violence that resulted in a tragic humanitarian catastrophe when thousands of defenseless Albanians had to flee from Kosovo after attacks from the Serbian army and armed Serb militias.
In all wars the majority of those who suffer are neither the soldiers nor the politicians who instigate war in the first place. The Kosovo war was no different, innocent civilians were drawn into a vicious, bloody and bitter conflict from which they had no easy way out. The majority of these civilians fled into neighboring Albania looking for safety in refugee camps that had been set up there. These intimate photos depicting the plight of those refugees were taken in one of the camps by Carol Guzy from the Washington post newspaper. The impact that these photos had on the international public was immense, in the year 2000 Carol Guzy was nominated for and won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.
THE HUMAN SPIRIT
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© 1999, the Washington Post Company
Several techniques have been used in this photo to attract the attention of the viewer. The photograph shows the clever use of colors to draw attention to the children. The greying clouds represent turmoil perhaps signifying cause of the children’s current predicament. The children on the photo are also in drab clothes indicating the condition in which they are living. The ground in the background is also patchy perhaps indicating that instead of hope that would have been represented by complete greenery there is uncertainty facing the child refugees in their new life. The mountains in the background indicate a barrier between a life of conflict and violence on the other side and relative peace and uncertainty within the refugee camps. Dull colors have been used in the background to draw the viewer’s attention to the children first. Despite the plight and bad condition in which the child refugees are in, despite the turmoil that is just miles away indicated by the graying cloud...