Tracy Baran’s photograph of a mom ironing and Tillie Olsen’s story “I Stand Here Ironing” coincide in several ways. They are both about a mother and a daughter. The mother seems to be deep in thought in the photo just as she is in the story. By looking at the photograph, the reader does not know what the mother is thinking, but you can tell that she is deep in thought. At my first glance of the picture, I saw a hard-working mother and a lazy daughter. The daughter’s lack of concern for housework seems to make the mom frustrated by. The daughter looks unappreciative of all that her mother has done for her. The daughter is sitting around biting her nails while housework piles up around her. You can see that there are more clothes that need to be folded and ironed, but the daughter does nothing to help. The shelves look jam packed and dirty. There is trash scattered about the floor that needs to be picked up, and yet the daughter sits and does nothing.
The story sheds a completely new light to what is going on in the photograph. Maybe the mother is not frustrated with her daughter, but she is frustrated with herself. She may think that if she could have done more for her daughter, then her daughter would not act in the lazy way that she does. The mother in the story worked extremely hard for her daughter. When the girl’s father left, the mother did everything she could to make ends meet. The mother begins looking back on their lives as she irons. She thinks about these things when her daughter’s school contacts her about her daughter’s behavior. She begins looking back on their lives. She feels as though she has nothing left to do for her daughter. She thinks she has been insignificant, when she has actually done everything.

The first thing I notice when I look at this photograph is the sentence written across the building. The words catch the eye at first sight. The powerful words cause you to stop and think before taking in the rest of the picture. The next thing I notice is the painting in the bottom corner. It draws the eye in and makes you wonder what it is supposed to be. There are several cracks in the sidewalk, which make the viewer think it is old and has been through a lot. The worn-out look makes me think that this was once a popular part of town, where many people used to walk and congregate, but it is now dilapidated and deserted. The breaks in the sidewalk are covered with flowers that have been placed there. It looks as though memorials have been placed there. There is an orange cone between the two groups of flower memorials. This type of orange cone usually means that you are not supposed to be in a particular area. It makes me think that it is there to keep people away from that area so that it can stay a sacred area. The flyers and things posted to the building and windows all have a positive message on them. It makes me think they are posted there in memory of the people that are buried there.
There are two elements to the structure of this image. The lines of the windows, walls, and doors cause the eye to work its way from top to bottom. The words written on the wall of the second story as well as the words written on the door create horizontal structure to the photograph. The blending of the two structures creates a grid-like impression. This makes it possible to analyze each aspect of the picture independently.
This is a first person point of view because you see it through the eyes of the photographer. From his vantage point, the photographer can see the many different elements of the picture, which add to the main them of life and death.
The quote written across the building, “when you take someone’s life you forfeit your own,” is a metaphor that means going to jail is equivalent to death. The sign to the left of the building that says “guilty” and “life in prison” is a metaphor for death and prison as well. The memorials are another sign of prison equaling death.

http://frylake.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/prison.jpg

The first thing I notice when I look at the Image of Homelessness is the worn-out cardboard box on the bench. The box has “Jerzees” written on it in red. It is bent and falling apart. The boxes are held together with white string and blue ribbon. There are dirty pink and blue blankets and a white pillow inside the box. There is a tree beside the bench with a circular carving in it. Trash is lying all around it. There are leaves around the bench as well.
Across the street in the background is a two-story Burger King on the corner of the intersection. It has a yellow sign across the top of the restaurant, and the lights are on inside. There are three large windows across the front of the restaurant. There are five people walking towards it and away from it. There is a bike outside the Burger King leaning against the three large windows. It reminds me of the bike from E.T. because of the basket in the front. There is a dumpster next to the Burger King with graffiti on it. There is street light post on the corner with a yellow “don’t walk” sign. There are three lights on the post. It is a very tall post, and we cannot see all of it in the picture because it is so tall.
There are some stores in the background as well. There is a lot going on in that area of the background. The area consists of many colorful signs jumbled together that are illegible. There is sun in the background behind the Burger King, and a shadow casting over the sidewalk. There is an intersection with older cars passing through.
There are people walking by the homeless man’s box, but they do not seem to notice it. The box is undisturbed. There is some type of fence behind the bench going along the sidewalk. There are no lines on the main street in the picture.

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/emerson-drive/moments-18069.html