Stereotypes - true or false
This photo portrays three elderly men. The men are a part of the Jehovah's Witnesses. A couple of days a week they take a walk from Nørrebro to the inner city with the purpose of doing missionary work. The photograph shows the three men sitting on bench in the park having a conversation in foreground. The composition of the black and white photo is build up around the golden section. Here the hand is placed strategically to follow this golden composition and the light toward the hand is creating a diagonal line from the sun towards the hand. The trees in the background creates a vertical line to the top of their heads. The building in the background creates a horizontal line across the photo. The lines leads the viewer's eyes to the men. This contrast between light and darkness and the the man´s hand gesture refer to the religious elements of their lives. We have chosen this photo, because we found them interesting. When we saw these well dressed men walking through the park, we thought they were classy and highly educated. But when we got to talk to them and found out they were from Jehovah’s Witnesses, we could see that what we thought about them to begin with was stereotypical. The photo challenges the stereotypes created by society. This photo also deals with the changing stereotypes related to age and this creates another dimension to the debate about stereotypes
We find this fit for the criteria for press photo, because the photo shows their reality and their everyday life. The criteria for the press photo is that the photo support our first impression and text. The photo definitely support our first impression, we thought they were just three elderly men walking in the park, but when we got to talk to them, we found out they were more than that. The three men all fit into the violet/rosa lifestyle pattern. Two of them were former employed as craftsmen and the one on the left was a gardener. Therefore they had a low income and education considering the period in time they were working. The three is as previous said part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses so therefor their religion is extremely important for them and serves as a way of life with focus on the family, their roots, local church community, and the inner values in life. This places them in the rose-pink segment of the Minerva-model and therefore in the traditional lifestyle segment. In this photo the idea of stereotypes is confirmed by our own stereotypical perception but then declined by the real reality.