Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/02

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Subject: [Leica] Re: so many issues
From: "Rob Appleby" <rob@robertappleby.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 04:53:35 +0200

No, you are so right - and so is motherhood, and so many other "universals".
Consider the motherhood of a western woman who has a caesarian in a high
tech clinic and gets maternity leave from work and that of a tribal woman
who allows her female newborns to starve and is back working in the fields
the day after giving birth - are these both instances of a universal human
reality? I think we can only insist on that by emptying them of all their
particular content, in which case it may be true, but is hardly informative
or interesting.

Just as child labour is an extensively nuanced topic. If we insist that
_all_ child labour is pernicious - which does not stand up to an examination
of conditions in which children live and work in many countries, IMO - we
are universalising our western values often at the expense of viable
lifestyles in the third world. This is also a tactical problem, of course.
Although, clearly, many instances of child labour are indeed negative and
should be banished.

The strategy of FOM was to use the trope of difference/identity to force the
bland template of "nature" on profoundly different "histories" so as to
obscure the power relationships between them. This strategy is
characteristic of those who benefit the most from such relationships - I
doubt that the un-unionised factory worker or the migrant labourer would
wish to celebrate the apolitical universality of good hard work, for
instance, just as their children would be unlikely to recognise their
employers' children as equal participants in a universal experience of
childhood.

Not to accuse Steichen of having formulated such a strategy consciously;
ideology is organic and operates above all at the unconscious (affective)
level rather than the propositional. Above all, it is invisible.

Of course, this is hardly a groundbreaking new analysis ;-)

R.


- ----- Original Message -----
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 8:30 PM
Subject: RE: [Leica] So many issues, so little time


> The problem is that it is very misleading to suggest that some of these
> things are universal...voting is just one example of things that may look
> universal but are not...I hate to say it, but childhood is another....
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Dizel
> Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 2:37 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] So many issues, so little time
>
>
> > There are good human beings, good causes, good movements...But that
> doesn't
> > stop the Family of Man being naive propaganda
>
> Undeniably
>
> > suggesting that we are all the
> > same in all respects
>
> 'all respects'? We are all human beings - the idea behind FoM is to show
> the smallest common things that are universal. This doesn't mean that
> FoM shows that we are identical..
> There are some basic things all people share - and FoM shows that these
> are _universal_ things. Nothing more than that.
>
> > -- just take a look at the photos of people voting...in
> > the U.S., China, and the USSR, implying that in each of those nations we
> all
> > have an equal say in choosing our governments and leaders....
>
> Thats why I said FoM is naive. But please, look at other photos too -
> for example photo of man drinking water, spilling it on his face -
> shows the universality of hard work everywhere. And FoM succeeds in
> showing that. And thats what counts :)
>
> > There are some really fantastic photos in that collection, but there is
a
> > reason that it was the most successful photo exhibit in history...and
that
> > is that it wasn't a photo show, it was a political show....
>
> Political? Made by who? Reds, Anarchists, India National Congress? :)
> One of Steichen's close cooperators, Wayne Miller, made also a very
similar
> in idea album - 'The World is Young'. It does also show universality
> of some things - happiness, anger, friendship.. And FoM is very similar
> to it. I used to think that Steichen was just a hopelessly
> idealistic humanist :)
> --
>                                 St.
>
>
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>
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- -- Rob

http://www.robertappleby.com
Mobile: (+39) 348 336 7990
Home: (+39) 059 303436

See City of Crows online at The Digital Journalist:
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/city_intro.htm


- -- Rob

http://www.robertappleby.com
Mobile: (+39) 348 336 7990
Home: (+39) 059 303436

See City of Crows online at The Digital Journalist:
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0204/city_intro.htm


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