A Photograph

This reading seemed more concerned about a legendary photograph than the deep meanings and thoughts within the image. Or maybe he is talking about how other media influences, such as movies or television shows, affect our way of relating to images. Eco talks about this photograph of a profile of a man in a ski mask holding two pistols. He mentions that most revolutionary photographs of a man standing represent a victim, not a hero. He then says "this individual hero... had the pose, the terrifying isolation of the tough guy of gangster movies or the solitary gunman of the West." Although this image was taken during a very important time in history, Eco illustrates that this image does not define the revolution and is not the description of a singular event, it is the concepts of the photographs and the conversations that emerge from it that is important. Eco goes on to say that with this particular photograph, no one is concerned with how it actually was taken of how it was framed but more concerned with the fact that it sparked this discussion where political and private meet.