The Canterbury Photographs

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The essay begins with a photograph of Larsen’s taken outside a meeting hall in Canterbury, NH. An Eisenhower political rally has just concluded. The photographer has taken advantage of the open door to the hall, the members of the audience who are leaving, and the unusual lighting created by the headlights of two vehicles, to signal a play within a play. There are four sources of artificial light. You can see the fully illuminated, warm interior of the hall through the open door. Inside a fragment of an Eisenhower campaign slogan – We Like Ike – is visible. There is an electric light outside, above the door, casting a bowtie-like pattern of light and shadow on the clapboard siding of the hall. The headlights are on in the Ford sedan parked right up against the building. And, finally, there is the glare of headlights behind the photographer, aimed at the departing audience, reflecting off the snow. It is a mysterious image, with deep, black shadows out at the edges. The light reflected off the snow and thrown against the walls of the wooden building, has the sheen and irradiated swirl of the aurora borealis.

There is no mystery in the text that runs under the Canterbury photographs. The captions are clear expositions about the Republican frontrunners, their key supporters, and the current circumstances. Unlike today, you are not reading about polling data but there is vague reference to who is ahead or behind, and how that might change given an upcoming, personal appearance by Taft.