Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think this image should concern all who see it for several reasons, probably the most important of which is that it isn't at all a good thing that scenes like this are all too often necessary. As I said in another post, the person who is being arrested ( I presume that is what is happening here ) could perhaps be a serial killer. I certrainly don't know. It may well be that he is being treated far more gently than he deserves. I have no way of knowing that, and it doesn't matter. For me this image becomes a metaphor which sunnarizes several of the threads which we have had on the lug of late. What is truly obscene? The clothes on pornography which Kyle posted or the scene these people are engaging it? I don't for a moment question the necessity for public safety. I am glad that we have people who are willing to protect us. But, I also think that we live in a time and place where things are becomming far more heavy handed than they need to be, and where scenes like this one are being acted out far more frequently than should be necessary. For me Kyle's image, in a way I can't clearly articulate, gets to an important part of what art is about. It is about the power to transform and crystalize. It points to a change. What if those officers had been white? This image is very much about class and power. I have been on the wrong end of police harrasment. Things could come to the point where it could be me being hussled off that way. I don't for a moment think that being white. male, and law abiding is any kind of protection. If you, or anyone else, thinks that this image depicts something which we should celebrate, that's fine. Just count me among the ranks of those who are concerned by it. I think that we live in a society which is becomming increasingly polarized, where the rift between rich and poor is widening by the minute, and where force and punishment are replacing dialogue and debate. If I continue this will become a real rant. Kyle's image of the black person being overpowered by black police officers got me thinking about a lot of things in a way that a newspaper article can't or doesn't. That is something which I think art is very much about. Barney Barney Adam Bridge wrote: > On 2003-12-11 Barney.Quinn@noaa.gov (Barney Quinn) thoughtfully wrote: > > > > >Excellent, dramatic, and moving shot. This picture really scares me, and I > think > >that it should give chills to anyone who looks at it. > > > > Why? > -- > 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