In the photograph, there is a girl that looks like is gasping for air. There is an ominous black hand that is grabbing her throat and she also has some black paint on her face. The predominant colors of the entire piece are black, which and gray, with an accent of red on the side borders and a few of the words. The only word that is white is the word “freedom” which was used to put more emphasis on it with the black and white. The photo also has a sense of movement because the black hand and the black on the face lead towards an upward direction, which leads to the words and ending with “freedom.”
In creating my social issue, I wanted to convey how there are forces that oppress us, but sometimes we either don’t realize that we’re being suppressed or we can’t do anything with it. The oppression is represented by the black and that is grabbing the throat of the girl, and the remnants of the black hand show that the girl has struggled with the hand. There are few times when I have felt that I have been held back and haven’t been able to fully be myself or feel that I have been limited to what is available to me. One of the way this issue affects me is by my education. Although I know that schools are required to teach according to the national standards, I feel that I am limited to what I can learn because there is no room to step out of the box. There is no time to think; instead, we rely on assignments that do not allow us to expound on our own thoughts. So, in a way, the issue was my way of expressing my feelings towards all of the things that I feel limit from being my full potential.
