A: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skidrd/72499995/
 “We camped out of the back of the truck, the Chevy Suburban,†Walt explains. “Later we bought an Airstream trailer and traveled with that. Chris loved those trips, the longer the better. There was always a little wanderlust in the family, and it was clear early on that Chris had inherited it.†pg. 108, dialogue
The image is a 1966 Airstream trailer, parked in a loading dock. McCandless’ father, Walt, said that Chris’ need to travel and move around was inherent and appeared early in his childhood on their family trips around the country. I selected this image because it is the classic image of American tourism when it was at its height, beginning after World War II and continuing for several decades.
B: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xrrr/88776083/
He lived on the streets with bums, tramps and winos for several weeks. Vegas would not be the end of the story, however. On May 10, itchy feet returned and Alex left his job in Vegas… page 37, journal entry
This is a quintessential image of the Las Vegas strip, complete with bright lights, an Eiffel Tower replica and palm trees. I chose it for its irony both with what Chris writes in his journal but also its contradiction of his beliefs. One can be sure that Chris did not live on the strip in Vegas but rather in a worse-off part of town where tourists do not spend much time. Most people go to Vegas to vacation and gamble, not earn honest money. In addition, Las Vegas is in contradiction with Chris’ beliefs about possession and commercialism. As a tourist and gambling city, it is known for its addiction to sex and money, things Chris is decidedly against. We see this as Krakauer discusses his chastity and also when Chris burns all his money.
C: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69128081@N00/129137273/
Leaving the river for a day to track a herd of wild horses, he came across a sign warning that he was trespassing on the U.S. Army’s highly restricted Yuma Proving Ground. McCandless was deterred not in the least. At the end of November, he paddled through Yuma. pg. 33
This is a photograph of a “No Trespassing†sign on the edge of Yuma. Krakauer has used information from Chris’ journals and maybe some eyewitnesses to determine Chris’ path. I chose this image because it illustrates the harsh terrain that Chris traversed and also his rigid deterrence from rules and regulations that governed most of his journey. Although this sign is intimidating, probably like the one Chris saw, he ignored it anyway.
D: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenbond/50229047/in/photostream/
McCandless tried to disguise the fact that he was a drifter living out of a backpack: he told his fellow employees that he was living across the river in Laughlin. pg. 41
This is an image of a man in a suit and tie sitting against a brick well, presumably in an urban setting. He is not quite the classic workingman, but seems to be an urban professional; on the other hand, Chris is anything but. Since this is a photo taken somewhere in a city or town, it relates to Chris’ location when he held a job. However, all of his jobs were labor driven – nothing involving what most college graduates do. He would never wear a suit or tie to work as his beliefs contradicted most of those of working Americans.
I tried to find photographs that would portray Chris McCandless as Jon Krakauer, the author of Into the Wild, described him through inferences and interviews. Each of these pictures from flickr represents a piece of Chris – kind of like a piece in the puzzle. I wanted to look into what drove him to be the sort of man he turned out to be and how this led to his eventual death. Each of these photos in intertwined with its caption in some form – whether it is a literal or an ironic link.
When one looks at a photograph with a caption, the caption clearly influences the viewer’s take on the photo. For example, in the picture I chose for option C is an image of a “No Trespassing†sign at Yuma Proving Ground, where Chris reportedly trespassed. One may think that this is the specific sign Chris saw, when in actuality, the picture comes from a person who may never have even heard of Chris. In addition, Krakauer only hypothesizes that Chris saw a sign forbidding anyone from entering the area. Like matching captions with unknown photographs, Krakauer is matching a person’s experience with places or locations around the country. Some of his knowledge is based on personal interviews or photographs. But Krakauer also relies heavily on Chris’ own testimony and the photographs he took. Krakauer had to match captions to photographs, too, and did not have had the luxury of a “tag†on each photograph.
A caption draws attention to specific aspects of a photograph. As it draws focus to one particular area, it may leave other areas overlooked by the viewer. In the image I chose for option d, the viewer is drawn to the subject’s face due to placement and also lighting. One may neglect to see the worn brick wall or garage door behind him, which are equally important as they determine the setting for the image. The same thing happens with the picture of the sign in Yuma. There is an impressive landscape in the background, but most of our attention is focused on the sign. In this way, the captions of a photograph relate to Krakauer’s “captioning†of Chris’ life. He draws attention to specific parts, like childhood trips across country, to explain his motivation for leaving his family and heading out west. This way, the reader is convinced that Chris’ yearn for travel stems from an early age. However, Krakauer neglects to mention any real problems Chris had as a child. His sneaking into a neighbor’s house to take candy is dismissed as a penchant for cleverness. If Chris got into any serious trouble at school or had issues with friends or family, it is not really mentioned. Krakauer tends to glorify him in this way like a photograph. The picture (pun intended!) Krakauer paints of Chris is an outdoor hero who made a few mistakes – kind of like a school portrait of a high schooler, dressed up only for picture day to impress the relatives.
Like many items in Into the Wild, the photographs I chose are accompanied by completely out-of-context quoted captions. When the book is quoted out of context, it shows how efficient – yet unreliable – out of context quotes can be, which is probably why Krakauer insisted upon using them. The photograph I found of the Airstream trailer, for example, goes quite well with Walt McCandless’ description of early McCandless family vacations. But that photograph has nothing to do with the McCandless family and the actual quote is surrounded by talk of an unhappy childhood. In this way, I have acted as a narrator, framing these photographs with words that match the image in one way or another, much like Krakauer has done with all his interviews, pictures and journals of Chris. The act of putting a caption to photographs is nearly identical to the act of putting words to an experience or action.