Flipping through John Thomson’s Street life in London, the photo that popped out to me the most was “Public Disinfectors”. Each of the photos in the album Thomson created has a light Sepia film due to the time period and how the photo film came out in 1876-77. However, this captures the overall melancholy mood that the men are emanating. At first glance, a viewer notices the two men on the right side of the photograph. These men are in bright white and are the focal point of the photograph. Although they are positioned to the right, they are more towards the center of the photograph than any other point in the photo. The man furthest to the right has a long beard and is looking off into the distance. His stance makes me feel as though he doesn’t want to be there. Typically, when someone is looking off into the distance they have a longing for something. Thomson captured this in this man. The man in white on the right has his hand on his hip and giving off the look of displeasure. In both men, you get a sense that the job that they are working for is something that they do every day. As a viewer, I get a sense of monotony. From the title, the viewer can infer that two men in the white are the “Public Disinfectors”. The mini description that is given underneath the picture says: “[The Public Disinfectors] constantly face death to save us from peril”. This statement Is very ironic since the speaker is saying that the men are putting their lives at risk so no one else has to or they must face death so that no one else has to face death. The speaker makes it sound as though peril is of more danger than death itself. However, when put into context (VictorianLondon Street Life Historic Photographs written by John Thomson) explains that the workers put themselves in danger so that the rest of the city can stay safe. These type of men are very heroic when thought about in this way. However, the men are standing on both sides of a cart—I’m guessing to house their disinfectant supplies. The men are situated on both sides of the cart, similar to mules or donkeys carrying supplies. The way the men are situated around the cart looks humiliating in a way, nowhere near heroic or noble. It is also interesting that the two men’s uniforms are all white. Usually when someone works with death or is celebrating the life of someone (ex. funeral) the person wears black. The men are constantly facing death, yet they are wearing white. This makes me think of ghosts walking through London. At the same time, the men wearing white could give them a sense of hope, since they are saving lives by putting their lives in danger; instead of ghosts, they could be seen as the angles that are saving London. The only other aspect of the picture is the other man wearing an all-black suit and tall black hat. He is facing the two men in white directly and has his fist clenched. He seems to be the disinfectors superior. The one that is sending them into their death, which is why it feels right that he is wearing the color black. He creates lots of tension and the picture and makes the other two men awkward and inferior in relation to the man in all black.
External Sources
Thomson, John. Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs. Compiled by Adolphe Smith, New York, Dover Publ., 2000. Google Books, books.google.com/books?id=pA7CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=public+disinfectors+definition&source=bl&ots=g9B5unBDk8&sig=HjjMG1qE8Hei6eERiY_WPE3Uak8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj28KWw_YzbAhVhoFkKHZEVBGEQ6AEIWDAF#v=onepage&q=public%20disinfectors%20definition&f=false.
lovely close reading!