Between the years 2007 and 2010 Wing Young Huie created the University Avenue Project consisting of over a few hundred photos. The photo I decided to analyze from his collection is of an African American man dressed in a yellow chicken costume. He is sitting on a curb and in his left hand there is a sign that seems to be an advertisement for a store, explaining a "good deal" they have. His face expression is neutral and he is looking off into the distance. The man is leaned over listening to music through headphones under his costume. There is a car in the front view of the camera so he is most likely sitting in a parking lot. Although that’s about all we can gleam from a quick glance and the visual cues, Huie thankfully included a small paragraph on the photographs he took.
Huie photographed the different diversity in the St. Paul neighborhoods. For three years he photographed storefronts, big box retailers, blue-collar neighborhoods, and burgeoning condominium communities consisting of the highest concentration of international immigrants in the country. He tried to reflect in his pictures the ever-evolving American experience. As I looked closer into the picture of the man in the chicken suit I realized he could actually be an immigrant. Judging by the job he has and how it is not so fought after suggests this might be true.
We can draw connections between Huie’s photo and how Margaret Atwood presents the differences between Offred and the others (men, the regime, the Wives) in her book. As humans, to define someone as “other”, or being fundamentally different, we fist give them a social status. Atwood states in the book that the Wives, the Eye, and the Commanders are all of high authority. Although it is stated nowhere, the subject of Huie’s photo is someone of low class statues. Huie probably didn’t and doesn’t intend to define anyone as an “other”, but his visuals do. The costume he is wearing, the place he is sitting, the look on his face, all show a difference between him and other middle-class Americans. We can’t help but conclude he is not living a lavish life like others might be and we can’t help but place him in a certain group of people. Yet, if he was made visually into an “other”, Huie’s idea to document his situation and create public empathy for him as well, hopefully, gets people to take the time to learn about someone before placing them in a “class”. Atwood does the opposite. She uses written language to show the reader the “others” status. She right away in the book establishes that the Aunts have power over her, “Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrolled; they had electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts” (Atwood 4). This establishes the Aunt’s status over Offred and where she stands in the Gilead society. It shows how different they are compared to the Handmaids. Atwood also describes the relationships between the Commanders, Wives, and Offred. She presents “others” clearly in the book unlike Huie’s photo.
