ku # 462 - propaganda and death threats

Cracked ice on the Au Sable • click on photo to embiggen it"Culture seems increasingly colonized by an advertiser's version of a retouched world ... [p]hotography now looks less like a copy or trace than a total fabrication, or a "reality effect" that purveys a fictive world ... advertising and cognate publicity forms have assumed the central role ... these profoundly ideological images demand serious attention ... attention to the fictive constitution of photographs ... becasue the common-sense conception tends to see only the objects and people depicted in the image and overlooks both the interventions of the photographer and the specific character of the apparatus ... [t]he resulting conflation of photographs with the pro-filmic event leaves the viewer open to propaganda of all kinds." - Steve Edwards ~ Photography: A Very Short Introduction

So, this is the core of my distain for pretty landscape photographs - they are propaganda of the most insidious kind. Insidious because the bulk of the Tom, Dick and Harriets out there do not pay attention to the "interventions of the photographer and the specific character of the apparatus". Indeed, they see only the (fictive) places, the "idealized forms" of the photographer's propaganda. They seek a respite from modern times in these "advertiser's versions" of retouched Gardens of Edens.

These photographs deny and obfuscate the reality that virtually every square inch of the natural world is a repository for the deadly detritus cast off by the culture of consumption. Every pro-filmic Adirondack moment that I picture is polluted by "invisible" air-born particulates which eminate from my neighbors to the west. The entire Adirondack biosphere is severely impacted by it.

Ever wonder why I choose to frame my ku with a fictive black film-edge border? One reason is to create a "requiem-esque" conotation - it's part of my apparatus - because, although I consider most of my referents to be beautiful, I also want to temper that beauty with the notion that the referents are living with a death threat.

Comments

[Ana]

Interesting to read this post right after the one a couple down, which also featured Tom, Dick and Harriet --who now all have cameras, too, and are intervening as photographers themselves.

[Kent Wiley]

Mark,

You've defined it in a way that leaves no doubt about the seriousness of the issue. A consumer culture that denies it has spread its blanket of lies and deception lulls us with images of an idealized world. I'd like to believe that we're not quite ready for a Requiem for the planet, but your ability to "cut the crap" is really appreciated.

[Tim Kingston]

Hi All,

Mark, I just wanted to say I really enjoy reading all of your thoughts on various issues that really resonate with me. I've been lurking for awhile, sad to say. Sometimes ( often ), due to my limited vocabulary, I have to look up certain words and phrases, it is always worth the effort. Also. I am happy to see many photographers here, posting, that I admire, both for their images but most importantly; their approach to photography.

Thanks for providing, I don't know how to say it exactly . . . a safe haven for similar thought, on what photography, really should be all about. I appreciate your efforts.

Thanks, Tim

[gravitas et nugalis]

Thanks all for the feedback and comments

Tim - good to know that you're hanging around the place.