Cover Photo Essay
The New York Times has many skilled artists that create illustrated cover photos for their magazine. Usually these illustrations depict current events. A cover that caught my attention was "Guns of September," by Art Spiegelman, which was published in 1993. The child-like illustration grabbed my eye and made me intrigued as to why there were children holding guns. I assumed at first glance that the cover was about gun control, but I felt as if there was a deeper meaning behind it. This led me to the question, what happened in 1993?
Taking a closer look at the cover photo the image shows many children. The same blue, green, red and yellow pastel color scheme is used throughout the children's clothing. However, not one child looks the same, from hair color to skin tone, there are differences throughout. For example, there is one girl in the front of the image and you can’t see anything but her black hair, with her 3 ponytails and her bangs. Also I noticed that three out of the seven children have smiles on their faces. One thing that all of the children do have in common is that they’re each holding a gun. They look like a type of assault rifle and a type of shotgun; the type of gun varies from child to child. The one odd thing about the image is that there is a random adult in the background. The woman in the background is holding a little boy's hand and she does not have a gun. Also in the background it looks as if more children are departing from a school bus. Each of the children that are getting off of the bus have guns as well. It looks like all of the children are in the middle of walking somewhere. After fully analyzing the photo, I started to do research about the most famous events from 1993 and I came across the Waco Siege.
I discovered that when this cover was created Bill Clinton was the President. In 1993, one of the biggest events/issues that occurred was the Waco Siege. The Waco Siege happened because the government was getting information that a religious leader was violating firearm regulations which led to them raiding his religious compound. This caused a 51-day standoff between the US government, the religious leader David Koresh, and his followers (Branch Davidians). There was also reason to believe that Koresh was sexually abusing the children. That, alongside the firearm violation was the reason that the government was so aggressive with their tactics. One of their tactics was to force Koresh and his followers out by filling the building with tear gas. Unfortunately, on April 19, 1993, the non-lethal gas started a fire in the compound resulting in the death of 76 Branch Davidians, including 25 children, two pregnant women and David Koresh himself, bringing this national tragedy to an end.
Thinking back to the cover photo, it is about the Waco Siege tragedy that began on February 28th, 1993. The cover shows a picture of children of all different races and different genders getting out of a school bus with guns. The guns that they held reflect the type of guns Koresh had, therefore linking it to the cover photo. In the background the children are seen getting out of a school bus, an average school bus has about 25 seats, that means there would be a seat for each of the children that passed away during the Waco Siege.
This cover photo was published in September 1993 and later that year on November 30th, 1993 the Brady Gun Control Bill was passed. This bill made it so anyone who wants to purchase a firearm must go through a federal background check and there is a mandatory five day waiting period before you can purchase a gun. Taking a glance at the cover photo, yes it is about gun control. However, it tells a deeper story about the Waco Siege. Ultimately the two issues are connected. If not for the Waco Siege, the gun control laws passed later that year would not have been made.
Comments
Post a Comment