AOW #20: Picture

http://piccsy.com/2012/01/cc/


Summary: This picture is of the sunken cruise ship in Italy, in which 12 people died.  Our generation expects not to worry about commercial ships sinking, planes crashing, or other types of transportation failing, so when these kinds of things happen it catches the attention of the entire world.  Many have blamed the captain of the ship for sailing to closely to an Italian island, and he is now being charged with manslaughter.  When events like these happen nowadays someone is always to blame because people know that technology is so reliable that events like sinking ships are extremely rare.
Source: I found this picture of Piccsy, which is not the most reliable website considering that anyone on the internet can post a picture on the website, so this could just be photoshopped.  I still think it is interesting though, and I'm sure it is connected to the ship in Italy.
Context: This picture displays the ship on its side, but with the angle of the camera it looks as though the ship is upright and half of the picture is water.  Obviously the exigence is that this ship sank.  Not only is it rare that ships sink, but it is also very uncommon that we see a ship half-surfaced on its side.  If one looked at the uncovered part of the photo, you would see a regular Carnival cruise ship where people most likely vacationed.
Purpose: I believe that whoever took this picture intended to make it unlike any other picture if the event.  The news and internet have displayed hundreds of pictures of this same ship on its side, but none were at this angle and were so different as this one.  It stood out to me, and I'm sure that the photographer wanted others to look at this picture and see that wreck with a different perspective, one much more unique than the news portrays.  The photographer accomplished this purpose.
Rhetorical Devices: I would consider this picture ironic, because the picture looks like a normal cruise ship until you realize the reality of the event.  It also alludes to the fact that most people look at these cruise ships as perfectly safe on the water.  This event was a tragedy and very rare for our generation to see.  I chose this picture because it was so different from other pictures that are shown on the news.  It is a very unique perspective of ship and personally made me think about the event in a different way.