Raising a camera

Raising a camera to one's face has effects no one can calculate in advance.
Anne Carson: Autobiography of Red

La llegada de la fotografía a la América del Sur

El invento (del daguerrotipo, 1839, en Paris) habría demorado años en llegar a la América del Sur (el 29 de febrero de 1840 ... a escalos seis meses de la presentación oficial en Francia) si no se hubiera dado una experiencia insólita y fascinante. Todo se debió a una expedición marítima, un premio que también representaba un castigo que un grupo de comerciantes belgas y franceses decidió propinar a sus hijos díscolos y malos estudiantes. Les organizaron una vuelta al mundo como forma de aprender en forma prática cuestiones de comercio, navegación e ídiomas. Era una especie de colegio viajero a bordo de una hermosa fragata bautizada L'Orientale, acondicionada con los mejores instrumentos científicos de su tiempo, acreditados profesores y selecta biblioteca. Entre los tripulantes venía el abate francés Louis Compte, instruido personalmente por Daguerre en el manejo de la máquina y el procedimiento del daguerrotipo, quien aparte de sus funciones religiosas traía el encargo de tomar vistas de los lugares que visitaran.
Juan Antonio Varese: Historia de la fotografía en el Uruguay

Intercultural Coaching (3)

In a DHL-brochure called "Growing Accustomed to Customs", from 1991, the section on Brazil states such utter nonsense as: "Never make the mistake of speaking Spanish", and "Never refer to Brazilians as Latin Americans", and "Never bring up the subject of Argentina".

When for the first time in Brazil (in the Northeast), I did not speak a word of Portuguese. I however spoke Spanish. And so I addressed the people in Spanish. And got along just fine - there were even some who took my Spanish for Portuguese. Once I was conversing with a young woman on a bus for about twenty minutes before she, all of a sudden, asked what language I was speaking (I'm aware that you might now question my Spanish but I can assure you that it doesn't sound like Portuguese).

While most Brazilians do not consider themselves Latin Americans (in any case, they do not seem to give it much thought), they are far too relaxed to mind being labeled Latin Americans.

"Never bring up the subject of Argentina" is so stupid a statement that it does not merit to be addressed.

Photos & Context (2)

On 30 October 2008, the website of The New York Times published this photo by Al Grillo from the Associated Press on its front page:

Copyright by Al Grillo / Associated Press

The accompanying text read: "After he was convicted on seven felony counts, Senator Ted Stevens returned to Alaska for a campaign sprint."

What do people think who select such a photo to illustrate the return of a convicted felon? I wonder.

Documentary Photography (3)

Susan Meiselas’ Nicaragua was first published in 1981 and reprinted by Aperture in 2008. The book is divided into three parts: The Somoza Regime (June 1978); Insurrection (September 1978); The Final Offensive (June 1979 – July 1979) and introduced by the following declaration:

NICARAGUA.
A year or news,
as if nothing had happened before,
as if the roots were not there,
and the victory not earned.
This book was made,
so that we remember.

Already the first photo – some rural place, in the rain, a pig on (main?) street, strangely timeless – demonstrates impressively that this country, like any other country, has a past and a present, whether noticed by the rest of the world (who noticed this particular country only when a civil war was going on) or not.

The colour (that is rather unique for pictures from war) photos radiate something magic although I couldn’t say why that is. I don’t think it’s the subjects (labourers at work, groups of people in uniforms, burned out cars, political demonstrations, street fighting, dead bodies, barricades, tanks etc) but maybe also. There is a strange presence about these pictures, they made me feel like being there.

One photograph, at first glance, doesn’t seem to fit at all: a black limousine at the bottom of stairs that lead (one supposes) up to the entrance of some official building, a chauffeur in a white uniform with a white hat, who holds open the car door; men in white suits who climb up the stairs; in the background formations of soldiers, all in white uniforms. What is this? And, how come it is to be found in a book about a civil war? The caption (on the last pages of the book! No, I do not even want to know why the captions were put there …) informs that: „President Anastasio Somoza Debayle opening new session of the National Congress 1978“. A bit thin, I’d say.

A very famous photograph shows a young woman running on a road with a near-naked little boy hanging from one arm and a bag slung over her shoulder. The caption explains: “Fleeing the bombing to seek refuge outside of Estelí, Nicaragua, Sept. 20, 1978.” The caption says: „Fleeing the bombing to seek refuge outside of Estelí, Nicaragua, Sept. 20, 1978.”

Years later, in a documentary about her work in Nicaragua, Susan Meiselas comments: “That photograph is taken by at least five different photographers, at different points during her journey. She is literally vultured by us. No one is thinking to help her, including myself.”

That is indeed the question/problem, not only of war photography, but of journalism in general: It lives off the misery of others. As Janet Malcolm famously wrote in „The Journalist and the Murderer“: „The more pompous talk about freedom of speech and the ‘public’s right to now’; the least talented talk about Art; the seemliest murmur about earning a living.”

The war photographer and the ones who simply look at these pictures share the same dilemma: both know that these photos should not exist and both are glad that they do.

Susan Meiselas

Nicaragua, June 1978 – July 1979

Aperture, New York, 2008

http://www.aperture.org

He wanted the photograph to do ...

He wanted the photograph to do what the actual event had done to him. Men and dogs driving a flock to pasture was an ordinary occurrence here in the west of Ireland, and yet it had made DelCorso ache inside, filling him with the wonder of a time traveller who had been transported back to the age when all men were nomadic herdsmen, wandering over a wild earth.
Philip Caputo: DelCorso’s Gallery

Photos & Context

One can hardly imagine a political debate without several "you've quoted me out of context". It is a real killer argument and implies that context is something fixed, and clear, and understood by all reasonable people in the same way. Well, it is not. Context is constructed, fabricated, made - and serves usually the ones who profit from it.

Likewise, the notion that for a photo to be understood it needs to be seen in context is widely accepted. And, it is also true. But who defines the proper context?

In real life, photos are usually displayed without contextual information. Because they only "function" without it. Take this picture here (thanks for sending it, Pieter) that, without any additional info, might be interpreted as two political leaders (whatever that is) trying hard to convey the impression that they possess a sense of direction, that they know which way to go. This is the kind of analysis that usually passes for critical journalism but only falls into the trap laid out by the political actors shown in the photograph (or their advisors - not shown in the photograph).

Photo: DPA

Needless to say, this picture could be interpreted very differently. Are Brown and Merkel birdwatching? Do they point at a passing airplane? Or did they perhaps spot an eagle about to land? The fact that the man in the background doesn't fall for the show might indicate that we shouldn't either and would be well advised to stick to what the photo shows: Brown and Merkel gesture for the cameras.