Composition and Content

James Rodriguez’s image is of two men carrying some sort of wooden box in Guatemala. After reading the description, it is revealed that this image is of family members who are carrying the remains of Jacinta Solis de Leon who starved to death while fleeing from the State-led repression. The composition of the photo is very symmetrical, having the subjects directly in the middle. The background contains mountains that look like a dark stormy sky. The buildings behind the people are also dark. The sun illuminates the wooden casket through the clouds, highlighting the true subject of the photo. It brings an angelic and hopeful mood to a place of death. The dog sniffing the ground brings a sense of loneliness and destruction. Rodriguez shot the photo from this angle to hide the faces of the family members, either to hide their identities or to not distract from the subject. The composition highlights the content of the photo; the true brutality of the Guatemala Civil War. Years after the war, people are still finding the bodies of their relatives, allowing some sort of closure, and letting them to move forward from the war.

“James Rodriguez Documentary Photographer in Guatemala.” MiMundo.org, Aug. 2020, www.mimundo.org/2332522-guatemala-life-after-genocide#0.