man & nature # 68 ~ don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

First real snowfall • click to embiggenI mentioned in yesterday's entry that "my additional intent with my pictures is to share my explorations and investigations with the rest of the world". IMO, there's nothing at unusual with that idea. Is there anyone out there within the sight of my writing who does not want to share his/her pictures with someone?

I tend to think not - although I would very much like to hear from anyone who keeps his/her pictures all to themselves regarding why that is so. But, in any event, consider this:

One of the ongoing projects of modern art, and probably its most serious, is to tell what it's really like to be living here now - not what it's like on television or in advertisements, not what it's like to be a cohort, but what it's like to be a man or a woman in that unique body that's always living an odd life. Against the forces of false persuasion the artist offers an undeniable sort of truth, stated in simple human terms, minus the jargon and the emblems of expertise and false authority. It's always a voice and the voice always says: this is how it is for me, and I hope you understand. ~ John Rosenthal

And this:

The true use for the imaginative faculty of modern times is to give ultimate vivification to facts, to science and to common lives. ~ Walt Whitman

Here's what in that for me:

Unfortunately, much of the "imaginative faculty of modern times" has been harnessed to buttress the "forces of false persuasion". It has been aggressively directed towards the denial of "common lives" and "what it's really like to be living here now" - with an unsurprising degree of success thanks to Alan Greenspan's recently discovered "flaw" in "the way the world works" (aka, greed, covetousness, corruption, etc.).

But, I won't go on a quasi-religious rant about the 7 Deadly Sins. Rather, and completely relative to things photographic, the reason that the "forces of false persuasion" are so successful in their endeavors is that the people towards whom their efforts are directed seem to be made up of spode'as, as in "what I spode'a do massa?"

The spode'a's photographic efforts seem to be devoted exclusively to the singular premise of diverting the human brain from its ability to engage in "higher" thinking regarding things like "common lives".

It's why they absolutely bristle at photographic ideas like "true use", and "give ultimate vivification to facts", and "one of the ongoing projects of modern art, and "probably its most serious, is to tell what it's really like to be living here now". No, those notions are not for them because that would interfere with their photography-as-a-diversion from what it's really like to be living here now idea.

All of that said, the one notion that I completely agree with from Kent Wiley's comment on yesterday's entry is "that you're rather hot under the collar".

I am, indeed. And to be honest, the primary reason that my hot-under-the-collar-ness regarding the idea behind photography that is directed towards false persuasion is that I am hearing so much of it (false persuasion) in what is passing for political discourse in this country. That and the fact that so many spode'as are buying into some of the worst of it. I can't wait for it to be over.

This is how it is for me, and I hope you understand.

Comments

[Jim Jirka]

I thought you gave an assignment of sorts when you called fo people to send in images that they are working on now, images that show what it is to be human in this day and age. You were going to post in a nine up gallery. How is that coming along?

I think if you received submissions, that would answer the question of who holds their images to themselves.

[aaron]

that photo is very trippy! I feel like I just did bong hits and chasers with Bill Murray.

[Matt]

I concur with photography emphasizing a myth, RE: reinforcing the "common lives" ideas. Not only do people spend a lot of time making their pictures look the same, they spend all sorts of time and money to take trips and take pictures of the exact same things in the exact same fashion, with the exact same stuff. I couldn't imagine spending thousands of dollars and traveling thousands of miles to take pictures that are, at best, "just like" someone else's picture of the exact same thing.