Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/01

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Photojournalisim and 9/11
From: "Rob Appleby" <rob@robertappleby.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 20:39:06 +0200
References: <LNBBLBNFHNEHGFKFMALGEENDCDAB.tim@KairosPhoto.com>

It may seem naive of me to say it, but I believe that quite to the contrary,
western popular culture, for good or bad, is a powerful agent of change.
Once even a small part of it infects any indigenous culture - or repressive
regime - it tends to take over.

And this may be a good thing in many ways. For instance, when you hold a can
of Coke in your hand, you are holding an object that implies all sorts of
liberties and rights (as well as abuses, certainly) - at the very least, it
implies industrial production, which in turn implies an educated workforce,
which in turn leads on to womens' rights, etc. etc. Of course this is very
schematic, but it explains why the Taliban, for instance, tried so hard to
eradicate all traces of the west from the areas under their control - a
culture, to use a pretty flakey analogy, is like a hologram - each bit of it
implies every other bit. It also suggests that this kind of regime is always
doomed to collapse under the weight of the increasingly repressive measures
required to keep it in existence. Which is a good thing.

So I do think that rock music (techno, trip hop, whatever) is potentially a
liberating influence. Not all change comes in the form of measurable
increments in prosperity.

R.

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 5:43 PM
Subject: RE: [Leica] Photojournalisim and 9/11


> well... I don't see the people of Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Afghanistan,
N.
> Korea or Belfast etc etc having had their lot changed much by the impact
of
> music either...! (give or take the bandaid of liveaid)
>
> Music is as much the soma of the masses as the news media, in general
terms.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Allan
> > Wafkowski
> > Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 9:24 AM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Photojournalisim and 9/11
> >
> >
> > Yes, reportage does impact on our perceptions, but how much? Hasn't rock
> > music changed the world much more? From the same era music we had
> > changes is clothing, language, and mores that continue to this day and
> > have been built on. We receive news through de facto authorized sources
> > that are fed to us without our becoming a part of the apparatus. Aren't
> > we much more changed by the things we are a part of? The dances we
> > danced, the music we listened to, the people he loved or hated. The
> > things we helped create have a profound effect on us. Much more so than
> > the things that are fed us.
> >
> > Allan
> >
> >
> > On Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 12:27 PM, Andrew Amundsen wrote:
> > > I'm only 32, but I have read that Eddie Adam's photo of the 'Saigon
> > > street execution', Nick Ut's image of a girl running screaming after
> > > being naplamed, and Phillip Jones Griffith's book 'Vietnam,Inc.' all
had
> > > enormous impact on history, politics and America's involvment in
> > > Vietnam!
> >
> > --
> > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
> >
>
> --
> To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
>


- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

In reply to: Message from "Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com> (RE: [Leica] Photojournalisim and 9/11)