Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger focuses on something specific when it comes to her photographs. When there is a person or people in her photographs, it is all about the pose. I could clearly see through the images provided that the body language played a major role in projecting the message. As seen in daily life, you can tell about a person's mood and even what they're like by body language. Projecting power is also very important through posing and Kruger makes clear who has the power in each photo. It is similar to how we were looking at the older photograph of the nude woman and how she was looking at the camera as if to say "I know you're watching me." In that photo, her pose made her have the power even though she was in a vulnerable state by being nude.

Another major goal of Kruger's is to poke and prod at social norms and stereotypes; things in our culture we have grown accustomed to, but may not actually be right. This is clear when it comes to her photos that revolve around woman. Gender roles are assumed and men are pictured as dominant. I find the "We have received orders not to move" photograph to be the most effective at displaying this.

Then there is Kruger's infamous pronouns, which can make a person feel humiliated or included. Like Terry Barrett said, you are either the "victim or the victimizer." It definitely makes the image more intense and emotional. The enforcement behind it is similar to the way media is characterized as being repetive and enforcing. However, instead of making you do something like media does, Kruger makes you think something you most likely have not thought of before.

I'd like to end on the note that I thought it was very interesting how Kruger's photographs were compared to socialist propaganda. I can see the resemblances between style, but was Kruger really a socialist? Were her photos protests and outcries against capitalism? Hmmm...

Barbara Kruger uses photographs with language that tends to shock people. I found this photo titled "Street execution of a VietCong prisoner, Saigon" by Eddie Adams to be shocking in a visual way. It was even more disturbing at the time of the Vietnam War when the U.S. was torn in pieces.