American Legion Analysis

American Legion Convention  Dallas, Texas 1964

Busyness, is the first word that comes to mind upon initial viewing of the "American Legion Convention".  The photograph has a sort of surreal quality to it. It is a perfect moment frozen in time, it almost evokes the feeling of watching something happen in intense slow motion.  Two things that stick out immediately to validate this idea are the stepping man in the far left corner, and the man gazing upward to the far right hand corner.  The man in the left is in the act of putting his left foot down while the man on the right has head fixated toward the sky.  Our eyes travel in a circle starting at the amputee in center focus of the frame, to the "stepping man" on the left then clockwise through the line of people waiting alongside of the wall, to the gazing man on the right and finally back to the center amputee veteran.  Another aspect pointing in favor of surrealism is the amputee's eyes, they are locked into ours. We see his pain and maybe even a little frustration. The taller man in the foreground to the "gazing man's" left is also gawking back at us, reinforcing a sort of reverse voyeuristic quality in such instances in movies where everyone seems to be staring at the main character.  The print is actually quite cinematic and expresses vibes of an alternate reality.  The attire of the elderly woman standing just above the amputee's right shoulder is a signifier that the photograph was taken in the 1950' to 1960's.  The hats on the soldiers heads is also a signifier of the ending of the second World War.