(a) life in pictures # 1-3 ~ I can't get no satisfaction
A life in pictures ~ Bell Centre, Montreal, CA • click to embiggen
A life in pictures ~ Madison Square Garden, NYC • click to embiggen
A life in pictures ~ W34th & 8th, NYC • click to embiggenDuring my October time in NYC, I began to notice advertising pictures on billboards, posters, and displays - especially those which were made with a person / persons looking directly into the camera, AKA - the viewers eyes. I became aware, especially when viewing the printed results, of a very visceral and affective sensation that accompanied the experience of looking at / being looked at by the eye-contact person(s) in question. A sensation of discomfort / ill-at-ease that was both physical and emotional.
Now, it can be assumed with a very high degree of certainty that a strong reaction (of a more positive kind than I experienced) to these advertising pictures themselves was exactly what the creators of the pictures / advertisements had in mind. And, quite obviously, the desired reaction to the picture/ advert is to create in the viewer a desire to buy whatever it is they are selling.
One could state quite accurately that the pictures / adverts are the fuel that drive the engine of our consumer economy. The things that fuel / flame the desire to spend and get.
The more I look at and think about these pictures of pictures, the more I am convinced that the pictures of the pictures are infinitely more powerful than the original picture / advert is when viewed in situ. At the very least, the pictures of the pictures seem to make the creator's intent much more obvious - the people in the adverts look much more like seedy carnival hucksters than fine upstanding friends / confidants / opinion makers or whatever else it is that the purveyors / inflamers of desire would like us to see them as.
Quite obviously, at least to me, the camera's power to isolate / the picture maker's ability to select and frame are in large part responsible for this more powerful effect. It seems to me that the veneer of "respectability" that the people in the adverts are suppose to have has been tarnished by the camera's cool stare.
The other aspect of the pictures of pictures that strikes me in a very powerful manner is the "Big Brother is watching" feeling that comes across - the Band of Brothers / Sisters in the adverts most definitely seem to have their eyes on us. They are checking us out to see if we are living "right", telling us - in case we've let it slip our minds - what all the right stuff for living right is.
Because, after all, as we all know, if you don't have the right stuff, you can't get no satisfaction:
.... When I'm watchin' my TV
And that man* comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me ....
In any event, I'm intrigued by the possibilities of a pictures of pictures body of work.
AN ASIDE: It has been opined, here on The Landscapist, on a number of occasions that this blog has a decidedly anti-free market and/or, if you will, an anti-spend-and-get slant / bias - an accusation that, quite simply, is not true. The anti-free market moniker is the one-size-fits-all disparaging label that the no-brainers in the crowd apply to any and all persons who criticize in any manner the excesses of the free market. To the no-brainers, the free market should be just that - free to do anything it wants. Period. No restrictions, no interference, and, of course, the biggie - no regulation, especially by that demon socialist entity known as "big-government".
That said, have no doubt about it, these pictures are intended as a look at / think-about-it critique of our consumer-based spend-and-get culture / economy. However, it is not intended as an anti-free market scree. Rather, it is intended to incite thinking and awareness about how ubiquitous the efforts of the Purveyors of Desire actually are in our everyday lives.
*that man on TV ain't gonna be Tiger Woods any time soon.
gravitas et nugalis
in life in pictures
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5 Comments
Reader Comments (5)
This has been going on for a long time. The market will not accept any criticism for "it is always right".
When newly elected president Roosevelt dared to take on the capitalists and imposed resctrictions on child labor and allowed unions to exist he was called a socialist, a communist, a jew sympathiser and even a homosexual. There even was a vast campaign to discredit him.
Today you are a idealist, a leftist, a socialist, or even a communist if you oppose free deregulated markets, are for public medical coverage for all and even think that climate disturbances exist.
PS: "Climate Change" as a concept is passé. What we are now seeing are climate disturbances.
And, yea, though the Free Marketers choose to ignore this, even Adam Smith was in favour of government regulation of the market. He, unlike they, was no dummy, and was well aware that anyone with enough money or political influence (much the same thing, usually) could and would attempt to alter market activities in ways favourable to themselves.
i.e., get over it, folks. There is no such thing as a "free market".
For a brief moment, I read "Jesuis Gomez" as "Jesus is Comin" in the photo titled "A life in pictures ~ Bell Centre, Montreal, CA".
in si⋅tu [in sahy-too, -tyoo, see-; Lat. in sit-oo]
–noun
1. situated in the original, natural, or existing place or position: The archaeologists were able to date the vase because it was found in situ.
I had to look it up (this time). I posted it here so others could see it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets a creep feeling from the "direct stare" pictures favoured in advertising. And I'd agree, I don't think these pictures so much create a "personal engagement" as a "stare of shame" effect to influence our buying.