Cosmopoetica

See more from the flickr set “Prophetic Pictures from Menomonie, Wisconsin”

“… The album comprises 32 photographs taken in 1905 of graduates of Menomonie High School in Dunn County. It doesn’t describe the students’ extracurricular activities nor does it reveal their hopes, dreams and aspirations upon leaving high school. Instead, photographer Albert Hansen and "prophet" Sarah Ana Heller, both 1905 class members themselves, portrayed imaginary futures for their classmates in words and pictures.”

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For some reason, these two photos from Snowball’s Blog (which I recommend even if, like me, you don’t read Russian… I think that makes it even better!) caught my eye:

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Sad news. William Claxton, photographer responsible for many iconic images of jazz musicians and celebrities, has died. Along with pictures by William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard and Milt Hinton, when I think of jazz, photos by Claxton come to mind. A variety can be seen on his site.

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I was wondering why my more-than-two-year-old post on Jill Greenberg’s children and monkey photos was suddenly getting comments again and then I heard about the controversy surrounding her photos of John McCain, one of which was featured on the cover of The Atlantic. Before everyone gets their knickers in a knot, though, I have some observations and questions.

There are (at least) two different issues at play here: the Atlantic cover and the manipulated images on Greeberg’s web site. First about the ‘doctored’ image in the cover:

1) The Atlantic cover photo wasn’t doctored. The Atlantic’s editorial apology isn’t about the cover at all, but about the manipulated photos on her web site. And The Atlantic’s editor has noted that they stand by the cover:

The Atlantic opted not to use the distorted McCain shot on its cover, selecting instead a more straightforward portrait. ‘We stand by the picture we are running on our cover," said Atlantic editor James Bennet. ‘We feel it’s a respectful portrait. We hope we’ll be judged by that picture.’

But Bennet was appalled by Greenberg saying she tried to portray McCain in an unflattering way.

1b) In fact, the problem (if there is one) can only come from the fact that it wasn’t doctored after being taken. The lighting was manipulated to get the, for lack of a better term, the Greenberg-ian effect and then left that way. I saw the photo on the newsstand and immediately knew it was Greenberg, but it didn’t stand out as being flattering or unflattering. To me it looks like most of her pictures of people, which is to say in some way unreal. More importantly, it passed through the hands of all the editors at Atlantic who saw no problem with it. Are they all partisan? Or:

1c) Is the real problem here psychological and ideological? It doesn’t appear that a significant number of people had any problem with the photo until Greenberg’s other satirical photos came out. What was just an artsy-looking photo suddenly became cast as the product of partisan tampering. And:

1d) Admitting that Greenberg is a partisan, shouldn’t the photograph be assessed on its own? What does her partisanship ultimately have to do with it and the sudden change in perception of the McCain photo?

2) When was the last time anyone venting about this complained about the doctoring of a magazine cover? They are, practically speaking, all manipulated and retouched. Or is it only a problem when someone is made to look bad. Or is it only a problem when the manipulation doesn’t lean with our bias? Who, of those upset by this photo, are speaking out against the obvious air-brushing and retouching on the cover photos of Sarah Palin and McCain and Palin together? Or anyone else for that matter? For the record, I thought the Left’s outrage at the Obama New Yorker cover was also misguided.

3) Where is all the outrage with the unquestionably more damaging and constant media manipulation when it comes to representation of women in the media? Look at any magazine rack and you will see 10 times more crass, sexual misrepresentation of sex and body image than anything remotely political.

As far as the images on Greenberg’s site go, they are a decidedly mixed bag as art or propaganda. A few are more or less standard representatives of political satire; a few are simply tasteless. Greenberg is a fine photographer, but the McCain manipulations are juvenile and not reflective of her skill and talent, including those expressing political positions I agree with. However, as far as I’m concerned, Greenberg can do whatever she wants to on her site with the photos she takes and has rights to, agreeable or not. We are fortunate to live in a country where the State doesn’t deem what is appropriate art and what is not, as was the case in the U.S.S.R and still the sad case in places like Cuba and Taliban-governed areas through the Middle East.  As fervently as some of Greenberg’s detractors might wish they could erase her photos from the world, I imagine they would hope and/or pray with equal fervor that someone like me not be allowed to make similar decisions for them.

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Some photographers

have just got

the eye. Kenny Weng is one.

Check out more from his wide variety of photographs… these little bite-sized versions don’t do them justice.

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Lili McElory is a photographer and video/performance artist who puts herself into the picture in fascinating ways. In one series, she takes photographs of herself literally throwing herself at men:

In another she curls up and lays down in public places:

Her site also features a number of video pieces that are fascinating to watch…

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Noted in my travels lately, the photography of Amy Stein.

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Not only the 2007 WikiMedia picture of the year, but an amazing little piece of historic architecture. That’s just the kind of place I would kill to live in.

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Photographers share what they believe makes a good portrait, with numerous compelling examples.

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At first I saw this little work of flash photography digital art and thought “that’s interesting.” Then I read the tips and played some more and discovered it is damn cool, tight, phat, neato keeno, hot, gnarly, whatever…

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Love this set of “spherical panorama” pictures. The example below is of my favorite library, the Geisel Library at UCSD.

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Shorpy constantly has interesting photos, but the recent pictures of a rural Depression era family are quite moving. The one linked from the thumbnail below really caught my attention, not least due to the strange trick of light and wood that made me think the young boy on the right was wearing glasses. It was so incongruous and yet at the same time made me realize that these people from a different time were no different from us. I am constantly guilty of seeing pictures from even 50 years ago and subconsciously imagining the people pictured as being as different from me and my children as aliens from some indescribable planet…

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While the book (Hungry Planet) looks interesting, the photos are fascinating…

For example, a family from the US:

And another from Peru:

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A friend Twittered a link to a great photo of the stars…

Be sure to hover over the image to see the notes and then follow the “All Sizes” link above it…

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From my old friend Kirk’s blog– monkey madness:

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Jon posted this picture and I was thunderstruck. The facial expression of the bride, the way the groom holds himself so that it is almost like a caricature of who he was before he was disfigured… I have to admit that my first thought was “I wonder what she is thinking?” and a narrative was building in my head of someone committed to getting married before the injury and the immense pressure she would feel to follow through.

But the rest of the photo gallery tells a different, perhaps happier story. The pictures from before the groom went to war to later pictures which aren’t quite so… ambiguous.

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Henry LizardLover not only poses iguanas for rather interesting photos, he also provides information on how to care for and feed them, the right tools for clipping their nails, and ways to avoid killing them by accident.

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Adams fuses together images, creating compelling artifacts. The Age Maps series combines photos of the same person as a child and adult:

The Couples series literally couples together people in real-life relationships:

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Apparently there is some controversy over how Jill Greenberg provokes the small children to cry… I just think the photos are fantastic. Particularly when paired with her monkey portraits!

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