Analysis Of Warren Avenue By Joel Sternfeld

The photograph Warren Avenue at 23rd Street, Detroit, Michigan, October 1993 by Joel Sternfeld, is one with great meaning and use of many creative tools. This photograph has two main purposes: to commemorate a loved man who was murdered and to point out the injustice of his murder. There is a painting of this man with clouds behind him signifying he was a great man who is now in a better place, however, the man is covered in red and there is a large amount of red underneath him on the curb representing the bloodshed of his unfair death. Right in the center of this photograph written very largely across the wall of the building is the phrase, "When you take someone's life, you forfeit your own." There are also flowers that people have placed in the surrounding area, somewhat like a grave site. These things represent the people's opinion about this man and the killing.
The structure of Warren Avenue is very straight with many corners.
There are dark windows forming almost symmetrical black squares across the photograph. The straightness represents the seriousness of the issue and the blackness might represent the mourning some might feel for this man who is now gone. Again, the purpose of this photograph is to commemorate a man and point out his unjust death. As such, Joel Sternfeld's audience is that of the general public, or maybe more specifically, Americans. He wanted to bring attention to an event that should never have taken place, maybe in hopes to prevent a similar situation from occurring. Maybe he thinks if enough attention is drawn to an event such as this, the people who caused it will be forced to avoid future situations with similar happenings so people may still trust
them. The point of view Sternfeld uses for this photograph is very interesting and purposeful. He includes almost nothing more than this building and makes it a point to center the phrase about forfeiting life. He centered this phrase to reinforce his purpose and he includes only slightly more than this building to leave the picture very bland and almost depressing. What he does include, he definitely includes on purpose. There's a little space to the left of the building that gives you just a glimpse of a tree and what appears to be some important dates written on the wall. Trees can represent the beauty of life, but Sternfeld only allows his audience to see a very small piece of this tree, maybe to represent how this man who was murdered only got to see a small piece; a glimpse, of the beauty of his life before it was taken from him. The tone of Warren Avenue, is very bland and almost depressing with some light, but not particularly enjoyable, colors set off by black boxes formed by dark windows. The only really noticeable color is from the painting of this man and the surrounding flowers. This shows the man's worth really standing out. The sky is even grey, reinforcing the sadness and mourning this photo represents. In the background information found on page 200 of The McQuade's book, Seeing and Writing 3, it is said that Sternfeld was photographing seemingly ordinary sites that were scenes of tragic events. He explains that the landscape contains meaning and clues and that the place becomes important in such events. With this context in mind, you can really see what he means when looking at this photograph. There are clues everywhere, from the dates on the left, to the flowers on the ground, to all the random graffiti. Joel Sternfeld's Warren Avenue at 23rd Street, Detroit, Michigan, October 1993 is a photograph with excellent examples of creative tools such as purpose, audience, point of view and many more.