B/W ku # 1 ~ feminist metaparadigm of post-modernist independence
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 09:42AM 
A light fresh snowfall • click to embiggenOnce again, in the current LensWork (No. 74), regular contributor, Bill Jay / End Notes, writes a really good send-up of current photography criticism. FYI, I continue to buy LensWork because Bill Jay's End Notes alone is worth the price of admission.
In his piece, Jay wonders why it is that pornography, given that it is such a dominate photographic genre, has 'escaped serious aesthetic criticism'. For those of you who are not about to run out and buy LensWork, here's the gist of it -
"...many of them (pornographic photos) are are richly endowed with visual iconography that, to dedicated artistic anthropologists, such as myself, reveal many mystical underpinnings of symbolic resonance, or something.
The image construction is ironic as well as iconic. The viewer must ask why, for example, is Muffy's tube top around her waist and not across her ample bosom, and why her knickers, only around one thigh? She makes eye contact with the viewer as if to denote her disregard for her dishabille. One can only admire Muffy's insouciance and feminist metaparadigm of post-modernist independence.
A significant signifier is the fact that Muffy is pulling on the end of her long blond tresses, as if removing an errant piece of chewing-gum although its visual reference owes tantalizing references to Renaissance mythological heroines."
Although the piece is not nearly as verbose, obtuse, and arcane as most photo criticism from the lunatic fringe of art academia, but it pretty much hits the nail on the head.
Reader Comments (2)
An MFA student bound for the lunatic fringe is out there somewhere furiously highlighting the "insightful" parts of Bill's essay. Meanwhile, his friends are having a great time taking pictures of their naked girl/boyfriends and posting them on the intrawebs.
Haven't read the Jay piece yet, but this genre is far from being lost on the world of modern photography. Larry Sultan's "The Valley" and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' "XXX Pornstar Portraits" being just two notable examples.
Cheers,
Joe