"Liberation" and its Reality

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin. Aperture Magazine, spring 2010, issue 198.

Saba is the name of the girl in this photograph. She went to university in Baghdad until a gunman shot the driver of her car in the head. He then shot Saba in the chest at point blank range immediately severing her spinal cord. She was instantly paralyzed, but some how managed to call her parents for help on her cell phone. She went to several hospitals, but no one would treat her. Now she lays in a bed in a friends apartment afraid that the gunman that shot her will find and kill her. This is the reality of what the American government has deemed the "liberation" of Iraq.

Changing of The Guard

David Cole's photograph, Changing of the Guard, is a poignant reminder that presidential administrations come and go, unfortunately their actions, or lack of, can remain with us deep into our futures. The ease with which Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta takes out former President George W. Bush's picture at Guantanamo Bay, and replaces it with President Barack Obama's is quite telling. Isn't the presidency just a picture constructed by each administration to anesthetize the people? If ever a glossy finish were applied to a photographic print, it would certainly be used for the official presidential portrait (a LOT of gloss is needed to make this a pretty picture).

Time for a short story. I remember rolling into school, in the summer of 1985, to have my graduation picture taken for our high school year book. School had not officially started, but I was on campus because soccer practice began several weeks before the start of the school year. Ok, one problem. No one actually told me I was going to get my picture taken for the year book that summer day, so when someone came down to the soccer field to tell me to go get my photograph taken, it came as quite a surprise. I was covered with mud, wearing my goalkeeper clothes, and I didn't have an extra change of clothes. So, I washed my face, threw on a graduation gown and hat and had my picture taken. The photograph actually turned out nice, but what would people think if they knew what I was hiding under my handsome graduation gown? In this regard, I do share something in common with our government.

Fecal Feel Fun

Doing The Fecal Dance

fecalography Continued

Fecalography

Opinions, opinions, opinions...? We can't get away from them-they're running rampant out of people's mouths and through our brains! Opinions pierce our Chi like hot glass chards in our cornea. I'm not interested in what you think-especially if it's based on nothing more than the hot air coming out of your pie-hole. Maybe I'm deranged? Ok, yes, of course I'm deranged. I started thinking that saying something controversial might be fun in a sick and mentally twisted way. Since I'm fairly certain no one really reads my blog, I thought this would be a great place to wade into a rant, or possibly a diatribe if you prefer. I love a good rant-mostly because we never totally know how they get started, and we usually have no idea where we will finish. If you don't want to here another opinion, stop reading now.

If I laid a big steamy dump on a plate and told you about its beautiful biomorphic form, and its creamy cocoa brown saturated color, and then I referenced someone else's art work to set a precedent and create a historical context for my plate of poop, would my fecal matter be considered art? Pardon my sassy phrasing. The reason I reference SHIT in this blog is because Neil LaBute mentions it in his article Because the Darkness Feeds My Soul in the Fall 2009 issue of Aperture magazine. The photographs in this article are a collaborative effort. The images are created by Gerald Slota, and the text accompanying the images is by Neil Labute. To make a medium length story-short, Gerald Slota finds old images and then mutilates each image-then Neil Labute writes a few words on the image and it's a done deal. I'm sorry, but this sounds a lot like shit on a plate. I would certainly prefer not to eat shit!

We Have Ways of Making You Talk

Daniel and Geo Fuchs

In The Halls Of The Stasi

Article by Matthias Harder

Aperture, summer 2009, issue 195

Daniel and Geo Fuchs photographically portray one of the Stasi prison detention centers in east Germany. The cold sterility and the sense of vast emptiness help these powerful images speak loudly of what went on behind the closed doors of this detention center. Though many years have passed since these rooms where used for interrogation, I still sense the terror emanating from these photographs.