Image analysis.

This image is captioned 'Baby in a box … the Vietnam war photo that moved the US'. The photographer is named as Chick Harrity. The image features a baby called Tran Thie Het Nhanny lying in a box next to her brother. The children were homeless on the streets of Saigon.

This image was taken for a newpaper publication commissioned by the White House. I feel that the photographer chose this image because it shows another part of the Vietnam war. This isnt about the violence and death caused by the war, but about two children struggling to survive on the streets. This image was taken during the war, a time when poverty and disease and death was rife in the country. Because I know that this image was shot during the Vietnam war, we know that this image must have been shot between 1955 and 1975.

This image has been shot vertically, to show not just the children but their surroundings. From the looks of the image, the photographer was on a slightly higher level from the children, possibly on his knees or crouching down. The focal point is of course the two children. The rule of thirds doesnt apply to this image, but this means the sole focus is the children, and we have to look directly at them and take in the situation. The first thing you see in this image is the baby in the box, and then your eye is drawn to the right to the young boy, and eventually to the left to their water bowl. This tells me that they're living like animals.

The lighting for this image seems natural with maybe a flashgun to highlight certain parts of the photograph. This image is in black and white. Minimising the colour creates a more dramatic effect, and makes sure that no bright colours take away from the subject and make the situation in the image look dreary and dull. The lens used looks like it could be a standard lens, possibly a little bit wide, but not too much. The image is completely focused, so that the whole thing, from the floor to the children are in focus, making a much easier to read image.

This image makes me quite sad, to know that people, especially children, had to live this way. This image looks quite natural. Even if it had been slightly staged, with the photographer telling the children what positions to lie in etc. the situation is obviously real. It has such a vulnerable atmosphere. After all, these are children, they don't have what it takes to survive alone on the streets of a war torn country. 

I think the message that this image portrays is a political one. It's commenting on the war, and how the war is devastating people as young as the children in the image. It's saying that the war is wrong, it's bringing people to the lowest they've been so far. I feel the photographer has used his own views in this image to express how he felt about the war and how damaging it was to people, and the country as a whole, just by creating a small snapshot of two people.