civilized ku # 201 ~ just thinking out loud (again)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 08:26AM 
The beach • click to embiggenA number of comments re: a reincarnation of the FSA photography project, here and on other blogs, thought the idea had real merit. The wife even suggested that those of you on the west coast might even spend time picturing the August 11-18 "healthcare expedition" at the Forum in LA. Good idea.
Paul Maxim (who knows a good entry when he reads one) posited that "maybe there are people out there right now doing that kind of work independently, but a more organized effort couldn’t hurt." - a sentiment with which I totally concur. But, a "more organized effort" would require quite a commitment of time and effort to implement. It would also require that commitment from a number of individuals.
That said, unlike the FSA program which required lots of office / storage space and money for film, processing, and printing, the web / digital age makes those things unnecessary or at least minimal by comparison.
A minimal web presence, a mission statement, a call to action, and contact with groups like RAM and other "free healthcare" providers to explain the mission and gain access / approval to picture events are the basic requirements that it would take to get the thing moving. Obtaining non-profit status for the entity would also be a must.
Individual photographers, like the healthcare providers involved in "free health" events / clinics, would be volunteers who see a need, have a pertinent skill, and want to do something about it.
A corporate sponsor would be nice and if everything were handled in an organized and professional matter, a sponsor or two shouldn't be too difficult to find. There would be expenses (overhead) and it would also be nice if the program could offer grants or stipends to volunteer photogs to be used to help defray expenses like travel.
I also think that, like the FSA program which started out with one objective - picture rural poverty - and then spontaneously grew to encompass much more - picturing the totality of the face of America, the project could over time provide a look at life in this here US of A during a time of substantive change - the times they are a-changin.
As Dylan wrote/sang quite a few decades ago - the wheel's still in spin and there's no tellin' who that it's namin' - and that's the interesting thing, there's no telling who the spinnin' wheel is namin'. It could get better, it could get worse.
I also like Dylan's advice to "writers" and "critics" to "keep your eyes wide" - if only he had used the word "photographers" instead of "critics", there'd be a ready-made theme song for the program.
It is also worth noting that the pictures that would result from such an effort, while they would open the eyes / educate a vast number of Americans, they could also be used to influence (and shame) some of our elected representatives - again, from Mr. Dylan:
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
But, all of that said, I'm just thinking out loud here. If you haven't noticed, I do that a lot here on The Landscapist and what I find extremely frustrating is the paucity of response, input, and action from the many visitors who follow this blog on a regular basis.
To paraphrase Cyndi Lauper maybe it's true that photographers just wanna have fun.
Reader Comments (4)
Mark,
I think about these things all the time and I have discussions and debates in real time with friends, family and sometimes strangers on the street or in the grocery store line. What do you really expect people who read this blog to say or do to make you believe they care as much as you? What are you actually doing about the things you care about other than blogging about them? Seriously, I'm interested in hearing what concrete things you have changed in your life to be more in line with your deeply felt system of beliefs. Or have you already reached that higher plane and are walking the walk on a daily basis? While I love a good Bob Dylan quote just as much as the next girl, and I have been listening to his songs a lot lately, I've gotta say that I'm getting really tired of all the words, words, words. It all seems like an endless, unproductive, looping, egotistical exercise. And I am not necessarily directing that last statement at you personally so please don't take it that way. Everybody and their brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, aunts, uncles and pet chinchillas is doing it--ad nauseum.
How do you walk the walk outside of the blog-o-sphere? I'm genuinely interested.
This may be off-topic but here goes: an excellent photograph!
Well, you could give the feedback some feedback once in a while. Interaction is the key to success on most websites.
Mary raises some good questions. If the President of the United States is having trouble effecting change, what the heck can we do? Talking about change is certainly much easier to do than actually taking some kind of action. And even if you're willing to act, what exactly do you do?
Generally speaking, I don't think that photographers (whether professional or amateur) tend to be "political activists". We tend to be loners, not organizers or "joiners". That doesn't mean we can't have a voice - we're just not likely to participate in million - man marches on the nation's capital. We're also not likely to be seen screaming at the top of our lungs at a townhall meeting.
But one of us might just get lucky and capture an image that speaks louder than the screamers. An image that communicates more effectively than any politician ever could. Most of us won't be so "lucky". But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. And that, I think, constitutes "doing something". It doesn't have to be about healthcare. It doesn't have to conform to someone else's agenda. It just has to be about who we are as a society and where we think we're going.
I still think Mark's idea is a good one. Maybe it takes the form of a website with any number of photographic authors as members, who post their own images on a common theme. Maybe we then find a way to select those images that we believe are most effective at communicating some aspect of that theme. Who knows - we might just find an audience.