At first glance, we see Emanuel on a train speaking on the phone. According to the caption tweeted out by ABC News’s Dan Lopez, a “woman was on the phone being interviewed for a job and this guy took her phone to put in a good word.” I think a very important point to note however, is that while we can judge the photo on what it appears to be, we have to think deeper to fully understand what is going on. For example, it is very hard to believe that Rahm Emanuel just happened to be on a train next to a woman on a job interview, who he felt he knew well enough to give a recommendation to, when an ABC news person was sitting just across the way. I remember Mr. O’Connor posing the question earlier “Can a photo really ever be candid?” To answer that question, I don’t believe anything really is. Both Rahm Emanuel and the woman both most likely saw the man with the camera there, so the picture therefore, was posed. We learned through the death of Spiro Bolos assignment, that by looking at an artifact at first glance, we cannot truly know the full story behind it.
Another interesting point to notice in this photograph is the motivation behind Rahm Emanuel’s riding of the train. While the public transportation system is the most convenient way of transportation for most common Americans, Rahm Emanuel could easily find a quicker, more private way of transportation. We can clearly see in the way he dresses in his nice suit and tie, compared to the assumed middle class woman sitting next to him in a t-shirt, that he is not a simple, average American. While the way he dresses may show clear differences between Emanuel and the middle class, by riding the train, Emanuel may be attempting to relate to the middle class. Also, in the caption, Lopez refers to Emanuel as “this guy.” By calling Emanuel this guy, it brings attention to the fact that Emanuel is just another guy, while in fact; he is the Mayor of Chicago. It is also interesting to note that this photo was tweeted, a method of distribution in which many average Americans would see the photo. We have studied many politicians in class who attempt to reach out to the middle class, including Andrew Johnson, who was picked for vice president for his ability to relate to the middle class.
We have learned through history that it is very important for politicians to reach out to the middle class, as the middle class carries a lot of power in numbers. For example, Charles Schenk was able to worry the government by riling up the middle class by claiming WWI was “in the interest of Wall Street’s chosen few.” By claiming the war was in interest of only a select wealthy few, Schenk was able to upset the middle class enough to worry the government. So politicians have learned that reaching out to the middle class allows them to keep the majority of Americans under control.
Besides reaching out to the middle class by being like the middle class, in this photo Emanuel is directly helping the middle class with one of the most important topics in contemporary America: jobs. As we saw in analyzing a NY Times photograph of the most used words at the national conventions, the most used word, besides “Romney” and “Obama” was Jobs. It was used frequently by both the Republicans and the Democrats, as one of the things they both agree on is lowering the unemployment rate. By helping a woman out with her interview, Emanuel shows that he is working towards that goal.
This photograph displays themes for today and the future. I believe that politicians reaching out to the middle class will become even more important in the future, so it will be extremely important to think critically about what we see to examine what is really happening.
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