Assignment - Research

[The Wirefox]

Again this assignment was started by Mick (Muckergee) on the old F-Stop Flickr discussion board. So its all credit to Mick for the assignment


There is no end date for this but its a damn useful assignment to get involved with - Steve

Carrying on from Katy's topic, "IT". I thought it would be good to define it further.

Choose a photographer from "Life" magazine, post on this thread his/her image that sums up "IT" for you.

Restricted to people in real life, type shots. No bloody celebrities!

To give an Idea what I mean.



Florence Thompson and her children by Dorothea Lange


An Iconic Image from the great depression. This sums up for me, the suffering, guys like you and I endure, when people in positions of trust get it terribly wrong. Made more poignant in today's economic climate.

So a link to the Image and a sentence why. So, less technical reasons, more feelings.

[The Wirefox]

f you hadn't beaten me to it, the image you linked would have been my choice, for all the reasons you gave. But I have chosen this, possibly because I'm a sucker for animals suffering. And this one clearly is, even if it is in a minor way. He's hunched up and over on that chair like his life depended on it. Clearly an unhappy camper. Why did Leckler choose to pose him in this ungainly manner? It isn't even as though it is posing as a human would, a whizz-take, which might give some veracity to it, but is deliberately made ungainly and awkward. Maybe someone else might have a different opinion on it?

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/37324090@N00/6160775617/]

images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=1880s+Wallace+Levison+source:life&prev=/images?q=1880s+Wallace+Levison+source:life&start=72&ndsp=18&hl=de&sa=N&imgurl=2a5da43a3b920f9f

[The Wirefox]

I'm very familiar with most of the photos on the site, and they create such a strong emotional reaction in me (especially those showing the suffering of children and animals) that I can't detach myself enough from them to put it into words at all.

So I've chosen one which moves me because I've studied medical history and worked in hospitals and it indirectly connects me with the people in the past who suffered terrible consequences through ignorance of the side-effects that over-exposure to large doses of X-Rays can produce.



This image within an image brings all that in its wake for me. It was the first time anyone had ever seen inside a human body without making an incision, and the ring on Mrs Roentgen's finger humanises the X-ray somehow, and because I know what was to follow the early excitement about this magical invention, it affects me much more than if I knew nothing of its history.

It's made me think about how photographers make certain images so moving even when they don't necessarily show things too graphically. I still don't know enough about this side of photography yet, but I'm assuming that you have to be sure that those viewing your photos have enough knowledge of the history of the event to make the right connections back to the focus (i.e. that someone from a different culture wouldn't be moved by a non-graphic image at all if the references were too obscure). And the more you know, the more your emotions are moved by the image that's pointing you in that direction.

This photo of the inventor's wife's hand also reminds me that today the extraordinary and wide-ranging influence of the invention of the x ray process in our culture has been largely forgotten, and we look upon X-rays now purely in a medical context, and with a mixture of gratitude and dread.

If anyone's interested in reading about the history of the invention of the X-ray process this is a good, readable, popular account, and which also shows some of the more graphic images that Mrs Roentgen's hand brings to mind for me:

www.umw.edu/hisa/resources/Student%20Projects/Amy%20Miller%20--%20X-Ray/students.mwc.edu/_amill4gn/XRAY/PAGES/index-2.html

[The Wirefox]

Although gruesome, I am mesmerised by this image.



This is by Eddie Adams and was a pulitzer prize winner in 1969. It changed the view of the western world on the vietnam war.

This image says so much, the soldier of the left edge of the frame appears to be smiling, the person on the right of the frame is just walking by.

The image makes it appear that the person being executed is a civilian but he was a member of the viet cong, the person doing the executing is made to look the disgusting human by his action. He was actually a heroic general who had apparrently saved thousands of lives.

I hope this image doesn't upset anyone. If so let me know and I will remove it.

[The Wirefox]

I'm glad you posted that, Steve. I never knew the story behind it before. Propaganda photography is fascinating.

By making it seem so spontaneous yet everyday we can identify much more closely with it.

I know a fair bit about the history of art, but next to nothing about the history of photography. This thread is a real education for me.

[The Wirefox]

This thread is absolutely fascinating!

[The Wirefox]

Why did Leckler choose to pose him in this ungainly manner? It isn't even as though it is posing as a human would, a whizz-take, which might give some veracity to it, but is deliberately made ungainly and awkward. Maybe someone else might have a different opinion on it?

I've looked and re-looked at this image over the past few days and am still mystified. It's an amazing image though, and the setting reminds me of bombed-out buildings I saw in Belfast during The Troubles.

It got me searching out more of Wallace G Levison's photos as I'd never heard of him before, and I'm intrigued with his quirky images. Leckler's unhappy Borzoi wasn't alone in being a part of his mysterious and often slightly surreal images.

I'm now left asking myself if I really want to know what was in the photographer's mind after all, because if I ever do, all the competing interpretations in my mind will be over-ridden by one, and not necessarily the most interesting....

Great choice of yours