Photo project, part 3

"Flight 1903"
Photographer: John T. Daniels

Daniels captured this photo with the help of Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17th, 1903, when the first man-made aircraft was unveiled and tested in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This greyscale photo captures the exciting moment when, at 10:35 am, one of the first aircrafts to ever exist successfully sustained flight for 12 seconds, traveling 120 feet using the sheer force of Kitty Hawk's winds. It is one of several dynamic shots taken at the time, and depicts man alongside his miraculous mechanical creation.

Composition wise, the vantage point from which the aircraft was photographed speaks words for the picture's effect. As the plane lifts off for its short-lived journey, it travels away from Daniels, illustrating the success of the Wright brothers' test without any sort of motion blur. Beside the plane, Wilbur Wright gives spectators an idea of the plane's size, and his posture conveys the excitement of this event. He's poised to help the plane balance at a moment's notice.

Speaking in terms of the Sontag factor, this picture is powerful and interesting whether you know that that man is one of the Wright Brothers or not. Since the photo is not in color and the quality is grainy, you can safely assume that this is an early shot, presumably of an important historical event (cameras back then were used mainly to capture things/people of significance). Also, judging by the fact that today's planes look nothing like the one shown here, it's clear that this was one of the earliest aircrafts to ever work. The picture as a whole makes you more aware of exactly how far humans have come with our technology.

That said, I think this picture applies more to pathos than ethos. I say ethos at all because John T. Daniels was obviously a skilled photographer with an eye for the rule of thirds, passage, and other artistic elements. Pathos applies because this photo took the world by storm when it was published; it made people proud to be American, proud to be part of such an intellectual species, etc.