urban ku # 196-197 ~ crisis? what crisis?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 10:27AM 
Brant Park and the new "green" Bank of America building • click to embiggenA topic which has been much on my mind of late is that of the picturing response from photographers - or lack thereof - to our current national crisis / dilemma / "situation".
I, for one, have felt for a while that my blogging activity here on The Landscapist has been a bit like fiddling while Rome burns or a form of whistling past the graveyard. Sure, I've launched a few "political" / socio-economic entries but, hey, I'm a picture maker not an op-ed writer, right?
One of the ideas that I have been kicking around involves creating another photo gallery feature like the Kitchen Sink Project where contributors can post their own pictures under the banner of, say, What the F**k?, or, It's a Fine Mess, or whatever. I mean, just about every photo forum site out there has their weekly/monthly themed projects in the time-honored camera club tradition.
Even though The Landscapist is not photo forum site, it is arguably a camera club of sorts. Many regular visitors come here on a repeat basis and the unifying/common interests are pictures and discussions thereof. That's a kind of club, isn't it?
In any event, one of the blogs that I read on a regular basis is Conscientious by Jörg Colberg. Today's entry Where's the Crisis basically poses the question, where are the pictures of the crisis? The entry is borrowed (and attributed) in blog fashion from an entry of the same by Brain Ulrich on his blog, notifbutwhen#2.
That entry has generated 24 comments, some of which point to some picturing work being done that addresses the idea of our crisis. One poster reflects my thought that it is too soon to expect a meaningful body of work on the topic. Hell, it was only a few months that this crisis landed in our laps with what seems like the speed of light. The subject is large, daunting, and complex and I can not imagine a coherent body of working emerging from an unfocused attempt to picture it.
That said, I find this bit from the aforementioned entry rather interesting:
... it still seems so many young artists are still concerned primarily in their work with the self .... Since last spring I've been photographing much of the retail end of the economy downtown for a new project, Dark Stores, Ghostboxes and Dead Malls. In doing so much research I've come across a few others who share some of the same subject and concern ... But the few I've come across pale in comparison to the number of 'drunken party pictures', 'ambiguous ambiguity' or the 'pretty portraits of pretty people' projects ... I simply can't help but wonder when a topic so large looms in front of young artists why not the desire to address it through their work? Is the self still so important? Will it really be how we remember the beginning of the 21st century??
OK, maybe the word "young" doesn't fit the demographic of most of The Landscapist camera club members but the question still remains, albeit slightly modified to suit my desires:
When a topic so large looms in front of all of you out there do any of you have the desire to address it through your work?
I do.
And, in light of the fact that Barrack Obama has not extended an invitation to me to be part of his change-we-can-believe-in directorate, I nevertheless do feel that I do want to contribute something of value to the proceedings. Even if its value is not immediately apparent, at the very least doing so in the hope that it might be so perceived in the future.
How about it? Should I launch a new project gallery?
Reader Comments (5)
A picture of our "replace the toilet" project could ably demonstrate the crisis.
Why not go for it.
The last depression lasted, some say, for two decades. Not sure I entirely agree but this one is just getting cranked up. People are just starting to get laid off in large numbers so there is not the kind of visual indication that there is likely to be if we can't pull out.
On the other hand I'm glad you brought it up. I'm not sure I'd have thought about it for some time otherwise and I am very interested in what you and others can do with it.
I'm sure it would be interesting to see what photographs people would come up with for a project like this but I can see myself being completely stumped. How do you photograph broken trust, deep cynicism, stewing, on the verge of explosive anger, bewilderment, disbelief that there is competence at any level of our government, or a feeling of general impotence to create real change? How do you photograph a crisis that seems to have it's roots in a basic human behavior shift? (Maybe I'm ignorant but I heard the word "kleptocracy" for the first time yesterday and it feels very right as a desriptor of what we have been through for the last several years.)
Anyway, I've been squirming in my seat too Mark, trying to figure out what I could do to get in on this "change" thing. I had visions of walking up to Obama when he was in St. Louis on the campaign trail and saying "take me I'm yours" and he would offer me a cabinet position--but, alas, I couldn't muscle my way through the crowd to get close enough. ;-) See my website gallery "mixed heap" to see my place in the crowd.... Thank goodness for zoom lenses...
I don't know, maybe I could photograph the nice produce lady at the grocery store who told me yesterday that her job is hanging on by a thread. There's a certain tenseness in her face that I don't remember seeing before. Just as it's probably true that change won't really come without torches and pitchforks, I'm not sure what effect a body of photographs would have. Unless it were unrelenting and massive in scale.
Go for the gallery and see what happens.
As one of the recently "downsized," I'm well aware of the chnaged landscape. I ask everyone I encounter what their take on the situation is. Not many images come to mind, but there is bound to be a massive amount of material out there should we try to go after it. I'm hoping The Government reinstates the WPA, photographic division. But until they do, why not see what we can come up with on our own?