Visual argument analysis and persuasion techniques

Deforestation Image

Interpreting Contrast in a Photograph

The image present about deforestation has a plethora of different elements to consider. The most prominent in the photo is the positioning of the human legs atop the events that unfolded in the natural world. The legs are towering over the destruction that was caused and this destruction is portrayed as beneath humanity. The rubber boots are shown straddling the ground below as if the individual is in total command of the state of nature. The individual uses this dominance in a malevolent manner as the life that exist before the intervention is now gone in the wake of death and destruction all portrayed between the individual's loins. I think that this is an appropriate metaphor for human interactions with their natural environments on many levels. Even the people, who don't engage directly in the destruction of the natural world, do so indirectly with their consumption activities and their lifestyles. For example, even though a man might not cut down the tree himself, he is still at least partly responsible if he buys the couch or the table that was made from the tree (or the paper or paper bags).

The other elements in the photograph are also consistent with these themes. For example, the only green that is shown in the entire photograph, lies outside the triangle that formed by the individual's legs. The scene inside the triangle formed by the body is dark and morbid, however there is a glimmer of greenery outside this triangle on the upper left of the photo as well as some in the background on the upper right. I believe that the photographer did this intentionally and this was part of the photographs design.