Re: [Leica] Re:Nachtwey

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@home.com>]

Arthur wrote:
 
>>>>>>> And do you  really think that one photo, or a thousand, can
alter the course of history
> or save even one life?  It's a nice idea, but I don't think it works.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Carl Cook responded:
> Try Eugene Smith's Nurse Midwife essay for Life that brought in some $25k
> -- unsolicited -- to build a clinic, or his classic Minamata essay and book
> that brought the environmental movement to Japan. Photos can be mighty
> persuasive.<<<<<<<<<<<

Hi Carl,
Eugene Smith produced his works before TV had it's hold on the mind's of
people as it does today, certainly while watching it and the same images
twice or more times a day along with the 6 pm news. 

TV brings the message to everyone without effort and is a form of
entertainment for many,  people today don't have the same "60's"
reaction to the horrors of war, famine etc. simply because it is viewed
..... "movie like."   Therefore who takes it seriously?  Yep some folks
very much so, but in general, I imagine on an overall basis the numbers
per capita who are horrified by it, are much less than in the 60's.

Remember CNN TV coverage during the Gulf War? Heck the first night of
raids, who wasn't mesmerized by the images of the return fire from
anti-aircraft weapons? It was so surrealistic and very "Hollywood
looking." How could anyone take it seriously?  And really, how many
people went screaming and demonstrating in the streets of the world to
stop it? Some.  Unfortunately the world basically went on as usual
because it was merely flitting moments on the tube in the living room.

The Eugene Smith era was in the living room all right and it stayed
before you as long as you read the book and not for a few moments of a
somewhat sordid form of flashing entertainment.

The weird thing is, people in some countries, probably North America
more so than others, would go apoplectic if there were as many hours of
pornography on the idiot box as there were of the Gulf War or any of the
other "events" that take place in the world today.

I don't think James Natchwey's book, as horrific and moving as it is, 
will move the people to the streets against the injustices of one human
being over another.  TV has created a form of visual immune system that
wasn't there during Minamata or the Nurse Midwife times.  God help us if
there is an event so disastrous that the people of the world rebel
against all the horrors of war. 

Unfortunately, we are all the losers for it!
ted