War Politics and Photography

On the topic of music, back in the 1970s, musical prefernce was intensely politiicized, at least in the United States. In Chicago, there was a radio station host who invited his listeners to bring disco records to baseball games ... after the game, thousands of phonograph records were stacked on the field, then were exploded.
 
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VinceC said:
after the game, thousands of photograph records were stacked on the field, then were exploded.
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Which explains the tragic demise of the picture disk! :)

Personally, I have yet to hold an opinion based on anything but blind irrational prejudice and am generous enough to assume that this applies to the immense majority of people. As Erik rightly says, a friendly row is a joy for ever, but on-line "discussions" essentially consist of yelliing "Yaah Booo Sucks" at oneanother. This strikes me as an entirely malign activity, more to do with networking and faction-forming than debate. In which case one can only offer the deepest thanks to our beloved Mods.

It also seems to me to be somewhat naive for us to use images in ideological bickerings. Any photographer knows that the art is entirely subjective and seldom little more than pictorial lying.

I would however like to ask Ruben two questions:

A) Which is better, Grace Jones' or Shirley Bassey's version of "Slave to the Rhythm"?

B) Kate Bush?


Cheers, Ian
 
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VinceC said:
Jocko, I never should be allowed to type before noon local time!
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Don't worry Vince - I not only double posted - I originally wrote "Shirkey Bassey"! :(

I will now go and listen to Sunny and Sher.

Yours in a state perpetual bewilderment, Ian :)
 
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Interesting article in this morning's Washington Post -- The husband of a deceased concert pianist has been issuing posthumous recordings attributed to her. She was never famous in life, and illness prevented her from playing in her final years, but the recordings have earned considerable respect in classical music circles.

However, it turns out that some music-recognition software inadvertantly discovered that every one of the recordings bears an identical acoustic pattern to concert recordings by other artists.
 
back alley said:
let me remind you that this is a photo forum and not a forum for political discussion.

and anyone who believes that we can talk about politics and photograpghy at the same time clearly has not been paying attention to any of the threads that have attmpted this.
no matter.

rf gear and photography, those are the main topics here.

if this is too hard for any to maintain then think about moving on.
go find a nice political site and try talking about photography there.

joe
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Joe, you do frase a sharp question - that´s good!
Partly I agree as well. A while ago I read through a long thread starting with the World Press Photo prizes. It developed partly into a discussion about anti-semitism and general Middle East poltics. I actually tied taking part in that, rather balanced I thought - and was sensored.:D I was very annoyed at first, but having thought about it, I see the point. It was not about photography anymore.

On the other hand - if we aren´t allowed to care about and discuss matters related to photography that will necesserally include politics in some sense of the word, I´d find that rather sad. Take documentary photography and the question/problem of objectivity. To many Leica-tradition photographers that´s obviously a relevant and important topic - when related to actual photograph(er)s, pictures aso.

Not true?:angel:
 
>>I will now go and listen to Sunny and Sher.<<

>I got you, babe!<

We've come full circle. Along with a Nikon F, Sonny also shot with a Nikon SP. I might have to go dig through my groovy albums to see if his camera is on any of the cover art ... he went through a phase of shooting Cher's album photos himself.
 
leif e said:
Take documentary photography and the question/problem of objectivity. To many Leica-tradition photographers that´s obviously a relevant and important topic - when related to actual photograph(er)s, pictures aso.

Not true?:angel:
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Absolutely Leif - but I think that as photographers we should also be able to take an objective view of the content of a photograph: To recognise the intrinsic bias within any picture - even if a bias which we personally favour. To discuss the political/historical context of a photograph as it relates to the intention of the photographer would seem to me to be entirely reasonable on a photography forum, but to use that photograph as the basis for parading one's private sentiments is quite different. I think that one of the blessings of photography is that it helps one to realise that any view of the world is necessarily partial. That being so, the ability to stand back, beyond mere argument, seems to me a considerable virtue.

Cheers , Ian
 
ErikFive said:
I... which powerranger was the best. "The yellow one is the best". "No the blue one is the best".
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No... the best Power Ranger really is the GREEN RANGER... the ORIGINAL GREEN RANGER. A couple of years ago I had lunch in Santa Monica and "Tommy" was eating at the adjacent table.

(to keep on topic, I took a picture of him with my RF camera).
 
Todd.Hanz said:
copyright issues aside, I have been here for a while and have seen many political discussions go awry...they just never end well. Lets leave this type of discussion to the political forums and enjoy our photography here.

peace out,
Todd
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What political discussions..? What - at all - has gone awry here at RFF...?

Having participated in a lot of discussion forums on the Net, my experience is that it is the sort of 'Canon v Nikon discussions' that goes awry. Not political discussions. - But not here at RFF! Despite we see a competetive attitude between Leica and Zeiss Ikon fans.

Despite this, RRF is a very sivilized discussion forum. Regardless of what people here discuss.

What we have seen here is appeals from some to join - and respect, anti war demonstrations coming up. What wrong with that? Is that so unatural? Last time there was anti ar demonstrations here in Europe more than a million people - a million! - participated.

You live in a free world, don't you Todd?
 
Olsen said:
What political discussions..? What - at all - has gone awry here at RFF...?
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Todd is quite right, Olsen. It may have been before your time, but there were certainly such exchanges, resulting in the alienation of some very active members. Was anything achieved by this? I doubt it.

Cheers, Ian
 
Well, regardless of political view I find all RFF pariticpants to be sivilized. Nor do I shy away from political discussions; Particularly if it is about the ocupation of Iraq & Afganistan which is a political issue that conserns us all.

I was not at the anti war rally in London, - or elsewhere in Europe, - an the thread started about this demonstration is closed. Press coverage of this demonstration - and similar demonstrations in many capitals of Europe, where low key although the demonstrations were just as big as when the war started.

See this interview of George Galloway on Sky here: http://www.spiderednews.com/Videos/62445.htm
 
ruben said:
Along my time at RFF I used to attach from the same source (Altavista) many small images, bringing some color to my posts. Many here will remember such attachments during the Mundial, and lately at the thread about "10000 members". None of them was deleted.

:D

Well, that's why I love the mix of Politics and Photography. Here is where the potatos are really hot !

Cheers,
Ruben
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Sometimes you get caught, sometimes not :)

The better known the pcitures the better the chances to get caught.
 
There was a line about pornography that I think came from a US supreme court justice: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." The discussion of the political implications of photography (photos from a political point of view, how to shoot demonstrations by political groups, the use RF vs. SLRs, etc.,) seem to be to be perfectly proper in a forum like that. If Ruben were to post a series of photographs showing clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, I would have no problem, particularly if he said, "I did this, and then I did that, and then I went to the DSLR because I found the RF didn't give me a long-enough lens, and if you cover something like this, you always want to stand in this place..." If, on the other hand, he said, "This photograph shows what a bunch of animals the Israelis (or Palestinians) are" -- then I would have a problem. But as in the case of pornography, you can't really come up with a definition that would tell you that one post is okay, and another is not -- but surely you know it when you see it. You know that we're no longer talking about photogaphy, but about a political point of view. I would much prefer to keep that off the forum, and I can't think of any other way to do than to have the mods do it...try to walk the line between the overly-sensitive and the anything-goes points of view.

On the Luminous Landscape a couple of years ago, Michael Reichmann went to a bullfight in Spain and posted about the experience and the photography. An animal rights guy, or maybe two, tried to turn the whole forum into a really violent and ugly animal-rights brawl. That eventually got tamped down, but it was pretty unpleasant while it was going on. Really don't need that kind of thing here.

JC
 
Photography by its own nature is closely intertwined with every human activity, and talking about images that make a political statement without getting politics involved is almost impossibe; the important thing to remember is to try and be respectful of other forum members even if you strongly disagree with their views (and I have to admit I haven't always been, my bad).
If members know how to avoid insulting other fellow members and their views then the problem is not a problem IMHO.
 
Pablito said:
You would not think it was so funny if it was YOUR picture that was used without permission.
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That's not what I intended to say.
Ruben told us that he got away with other posts containing copyrighted pictures, he got caught when he used a more popular one.


Edit: this is still unclear :)

I don't want to excuse unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
 
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