Visual Rhetoric: Analyzing a Photo Essay

Ali Hazel, an eleventh-grade AP English Language student, analyzed the visual texts on pages 958–61 and wrote the essay below in response to this prompt:

Look carefully at the series of photos from Hungry Planet, a photo essay by Peter Menzel, and carefully consider the information that accompanies each photo. What is Menzel suggesting about food consumption by combining visual and textual information? Write an essay that analyzes how effectively the photo sequence conveys an important point about global food consumption and sustainable eating, and develops a position on those issues. Refer to the perspectives conveyed by the photos as you develop your position.

As you read Ali’s essay, consider the techniques that she uses to do a close reading of the visual texts. Then answer the questions about how she conducts her analysis and develops her argument.

Hard to Swallow

Ali Hazel

Life, especially family life, revolves around food, Earth’s most precious and indispensable resource. For many of us, including myself (a middle-class American), food is easy to come by, always accessible, and always on-hand. Unfortunately, this accessibility allows us consumers to take food for granted, to misuse and mistreat the life-sustaining gift of our planet. We often assume our right to have food; we grumble until it’s ours, we take more than is necessary, and we throw the remains and the packaging into the trash. This frivolous consumption can only last so long; how much more can the human race afford to waste before we completely devour all of Earth’s resources? These six pictures offer an answer to this grisly question, but the suggestion may be hard for consumers to swallow. The series of images shocks its audience with an effective combination of realism and indisputable facts. Each of the six families, representing diverse cultures and countries, displays the food they consume in one week. Accompanying each image are two brief statements, describing the total weekly food expenditure, as well as the family’s favorite foods or favorite recipes. Clearly, the quantity of food displayed in several images suggests a dire need to change our attitude toward consumption. Moreover, images of the types of food and of the family members themselves, and the juxtaposition of textual information all combine to convey a sense of urgency to the audience; the images offer a wakeup call for consumers who are willing to stop, listen, and act.

With its factories of mass-production and its hoards of processed food, America breeds consumers of packaged and plastic-wrapped goodies. If an American family wants to eat nutritiously, aiming for an organic and sustainable lifestyle, they must have money. Eating fresh is expensive; the recent “locavore” movement caters to the well off. Unfortunately, the processed and packaged foodstuffs available at any grocery store are significantly cheaper than the fare at your local farm-stand. Perhaps this explains why the Caven family’s kitchen is filled with familiar, shiny, synthetic packaging: vanilla wafers, raisin bran, frozen pizza, and pretzels. Perhaps, also, this image provokes the audience, causing them to consider the eventual fate of the colorful packaging. A significant factor of the current environmental crisis is the sheer amount of waste that packaged goods produce. In the forefront of the Cavens’ kitchen, three dull, unhappy pieces of broccoli represent the family’s greens. For this California family, who typically spends about $40 a person per week, fresh veggies may be expensive to come by. Whether the Caven family simply chooses to omit vegetables from their diet or not, the expense of fresh fare is undeniable. Ironically, on the other end of the spectrum, the Namgay family of Bhutan and the Ayme family of Ecuador spend about $0.40 and $3.51 per person on food per week, respectively. Their diet consists almost exclusively of unpackaged fresh vegetables and fruits; in fact, the greens displayed by the Namgays are much more appetizing than the Cavens’ broccoli. These images suggest that in commercialized countries, eating fresh from the Earth requires excessive amounts of income; in less-developed, non-commercialized countries, a family can sustain itself on harvested food for next to nothing. The Cavens feed themselves for $160 a week, producing an enormous amount of waste in the process. If one California family can use that much packaging in one week, consider the amount of trash generated in one year. Now multiply that pile of waste by ten families, by twenty, by a million.

A common thread that connects families who spend more on food, like those in Kuwait, Germany, and the United States, is the consumption of animal products. The Melander family of Germany spends weekly an astounding $125 per person on food; featured prominently in their diet are meats and cheese, seen in the center left and the bottom of the picture. Although in Kuwait the family members spend significantly less than their German counterparts—$28 per person each week—the Al Haggan family also consumes a large amount of animal products, especially eggs (left, center). The images suggest that the more resources consumed from animals, the higher the weekly food expenditure. The series of pictures begs an important question: if the family in Bhutan can feed thirteen members with the products of the Earth, then why can’t the family in Germany feed their family of four for less than $100 per person? Animals represent a precious and endangered aspect of our food supply; these images indicate that, regarding animal-product consumption, humans need to exercise moderation. This practice will prove to be healthy, economical, and environmentally sound.

The quantity and type of food consumed by each family reinforce the images’ foreboding message of wastefulness; however, the pictures not only depict the resources a family consumes, but also the family members themselves. The individuals, their age, expression, and demeanor, are critical rhetorical devices. We can connect a body with the food it consumes. Take, for instance, the family of six in the Breidjing Camp in Chad. The appalling scarcity of food for this close-knit family is evident at first glance; however, consider the body language of the six individuals. The family, leaning, grasping, and supporting one another, clearly shares a close and dependent relationship. Consider also the age of the members, another significant aspect of the image. Excluding the woman to the far left, holding the small baby girl, the family is made up of children. The family in Bhutan houses several generations. At first glance, one might even miss the child hiding next to the eggplant. Similarly, the family in Ecuador is composed of a mother and father, and seven small children. The countenances of these kids sharply contrast with the faces of the two children from the family of four in Germany; clearly, more meat, dairy, and microwavable pizza do not guarantee one’s happiness. Is it a coincidence that the children of the Caven family look equally unenthused and disjoined from their parents? Is this disparity a result of the consumerism that marks these two societies? Clearly, the food that each family displays is not the only aspect of the images that tells a story.

The textual information that accompanies each image acts as rhetorical pathos, catalyzing an emotional reaction from the audience. Besides providing the viewer with a clear number for food expenditure, the foods and recipes give the audience a personal insight into each highlighted family; we understand more about the solemn German children through their favorite meals (you are what you eat, right?). Through this information, the image becomes more real, and the message of the series truly hits home. For example, consider the image of the Namgay family of Bhutan. The additional information describes a special family recipe, comprised of mushroom, cheese, and pork. The viewer again returns to the image. Where is the cheese? Where is the pork? Unlike the favorite foods of the Caven and Melander families, the information suggests that this Bhutanese family does not always have the resources necessary to make their prized meals. The Namgay family has no freezer for ice cream, berry yogurt sundaes, or vanilla pudding. In a global context, the favorite foods of the well-off German and American families seem shamefully extravagant compared to “potato soup with cabbage” and “soup with fresh sheep meat.”

This particular series of images encompasses a global crisis in six illustrations.The images successfully catalyze an emotional reaction from the viewer; they describe the wasteful excesses of processed foods and the dire need for an even distribution of resources. Don Delillo’s postmodern novel White Noise addresses similar concerns. An analysis of contemporary consumer society, White Noise describes the responses and reactions of American Jack Gladney to a complex, industrial world. In one particularly vivid scene, Jack digs through his family’s garbage bin, considers the waste, and questions, “Was this ours? Did it belong to us? Had we created it?” (Delillo 247). Jack is disgusted by his own trash, humiliated and slightly overwhelmed at the garbage that contains the “shameful secrets” of humanity. Waste, like the waste that the Gladney household produces, is a universal problem. Consider the enormous amounts of packaging needed to supply the Al Haggan, Melander, and Caven families their weekly amount of food; besides produce, every item is carefully wrapped in precious material. The beverages alone (water, liquor, and soda) require copious amounts of glass and plastic. The images send a critical message to an audience who may be too full to hear: we, as consumers and stewards of the Earth, must respect and revere the food our planet produces. Keeping in mind the families that have so little, we must discard our excessive habits and grow into a global community, a modern society where no child is left without his or her meal. We must acknowledge the gifts that Earth gives us and decrease our consumption of wasteful, processed, and packaged items.

Works Cited

Delillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Viking, 1985. Print.

Menzel, Peter. “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.” The Language of Composition. 2nd ed. Ed. Shea, Renée H., Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. Boston: Bedford, 2013. Print.