Image Analysis Exercise

This short essay will consist in the analysis and comparison of three different images split in two groups: 1) "The Uncle Sam Range" and 2) "East African Transport - Old Style" and "East African Transport - New Style". The purpose of this analysis is to show a social, cultural, technological, political and historical awareness examining the typography, purposes of the works and the audience of these.

1.- The Uncle Sam Range

Designed by Schumacher & Ettlinger in 1876 The Uncle Sam Range casts at a very first glance an American feeling as the walls and floor are covered in blue, red, white, stripes and stars, not to mention the maid's dress. The typography used is a Tuscan Typeface, and according to an article written by The University of Texas at Austin: "The majority of Gothic Tuscans produced in the second half of the nineteenth century originated as wood type in America", so this style was quite popular back then.


The guests seem to be invited by Uncle Sam, the masculine figure in the center of the picture facing the audience. The other adult, the woman, represented how women used to be considered those days: a servant in the background, not participating in that celebration. The Earth is also sitting on the table with a desperate and hungry face reading the menu full of stereotypical foods from all over the globe. It seems like the author wanted to tell the audience how almighty the Uncle Sam can be. The alpha male posture, exhibiting the food and giving to choose anything that can be cooked in the world as a gesture of omnipotence. Finally, the character that is not to be seen. The slave. The black kid cooking is the only one on the picture facing down and it is only possible to see one side of his face, like the designer wanted to add him but not entirely.

2.- 'Colonial Progress Brings Home Prosperity' series of posters

These two pictures were illustrated by Adrian Allison back in 1931. They are much less detailed than the first one but the meaning to contemporary audience may be mistaken. These posters were part of a colonisation founding campaign.

The first image shows a group of people during a migration. They look lost and angry. The leader and the majority of other adults in the image are mostly women, something negative for that period in time, symbolising that with chaos most likely. They are also armed and look scared, moving for not knowing how to survive in that moor.

The second one, a white English man in control. The empire has arrived, and that sofisticated western and well dressed man smoking a pipe bothers to giving the savages civilization and technology (the trucks). Today these last lines can be read using an ironic tone but back in the 30's they were the plain truth.

3.- Final comparison

In the images we can appreciate the old societies where the white man was the most important concept, while black people and women are there just to serve him. As a cultural aspect we can appreciate how they conceived the oppression and the imperialism. While the Americans were proud of being independent and free to establish their own government and politics the British thought they were doing something good for the rest of the world colonising it, which was dramatically incorrect. They bragged about their technologies as something that was there to improve Africans lives, when in reality was just a tool for the slaves to be more efficient. All the images are proof that history is written by those who win in a conflict, telling what they consider opportune and from their perspective.