Re: Off Topic, but of interest to this group - I hope


"Frank Calidonna" <frankc@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fTLef.3674$uC3.3324@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:
>
>
> I am not sure the 'New Atlantis' web site is I would pick for a
> > discussion on propaganda and photography. The 'Old Atlantis'
> > is flaky enough.
> >
> > The motivation for the article appears to come from Rosen's (quoted):
> >
> > "The second of the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20
> > warns against idolizing, or even making, graven images:
> >
> > 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
> > or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
> > or that is in the earth beneath,
> > or that is in the water under the earth.'"
> >
> > May as well discuss photography on soc.taliban
> >
> > * * *
> >
> > The site this article appears on is a mouthpiece for:
> >
> > Ethics and Public Policy Center
> > http://www.eppc.org/
> >
> > Associated with something called:
> >
> > Bioethics and American Democracy
> >
> > They all get their money from ???>
>
> I go to the Art & Letters Daily website every morning. They review
> books, articles and essays all over the web and post four or five short
> descriptions and links every morning. The article on imaging naturally
> caught my eye. I realize that New Atlantis is a strange site, but
> Rosen's essay and thesis on the detrimental effect on us and our culture
> by so many images was interesting. I totally disagree with her about the
> detriment, but do agree that photography, printing press and video
> technolgies allowing mass distribution of pictures have had a major,
> profound effect on us all.
>
> I read and taught for years about art, photography as an art, is it an
> art, what is art, etc., etc., etc., blah blah blah. Then Schlain's book
> hit me right between the eyes. I was aware of the impact of some photos
> on people before that, but his thesis, based on right-brain/left brain
> research, that cultures with linear alphabets denigrate the status of
> women and that the growth of feminism begins with the advent of both
> photgraphy and printing technologies to distribute them was mind shaking
> to say the least. As he states he doesn't present a scientic testable
> proof just a good court case for his theory. It is quite a book.
> That sent me back to reread Marshal McCluan, Sonatg and a few others.
> That is where I am at now.
>
> Those of us who use photography for journalism, commercial advertising,
> or even our fine art realize (hope) that our pictures can make a
> difference to a viewer. The fact that our snapshots are what we grab
> when the house is on fire attests to the importance we attach to even
> our simplest images. And the fact that everyone here has spent thousand
> of hours and dollars learning, creating, traveling, and crafting the
> finest images we are capable of producing must mean that pictures mean
> quite a lot to us all.
>
> Way back in the fifties in college I remember the emotional and
> visceral shock when first seeing photographs by Adams, Weston,
> Cunningham and all of the rest ( anyone else old enough to remember when
> Popular Photography was a first class magazine?) Gene Smith's pictures
> in Life were also formative. So I have always been aware of the effects
> of pictures, but never gave much thought to the broad social
> consequences of ubiqitous pictures in our culture - or any culture for
> that matter.
>
> My other passion besides photography is funerary art. One of the things
> that makes colonial gravestones so unique is the fact that the images on
> them were carved at the height of the influence of the Puritan
> Church.Your biblical quote of "no graven image" was a cornerstone of the
> Puritan faith. The stones are equivalent to a member of the Taliban
> painting a picture of Allah on his wall. I think the appeal of pictures
> is primal.
> Frank
For a long time now I've felt that we only think we have a choice. "The
Taliban School of Fine Art" is just as likely as an artist becoming
Taliban. Or a Puritan reading the work of Andy Warhol. I don't believe
things come in segments, or random pieces. You got one, you got them all. I
guess the same thing goes for graven inage. If they don't agree, then it
must not be graven. All the churches are loaded with non-graven images, as
are the houses and even the lawns. Let's face it, it takes a
certain amount of humor to do Art. Especially when you tear up a lot of
your work, or realize it was a bad idea from the get-go, and I really doubt
there are many Taliban comedy clubs. A clue.
Bob Hickey


.

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