What they capture in their photos is a perversely distorted world...

while this is certainly an interesting and not a stupid statement, there are clearly a lot of media and arts history and theory related things that he is ignoring. he sounds a little like a bitter romanticist.
there's still a certain amount of "truth" in what he says.
 
the author - through the character in the novel - apparently makes an assumption that man is, at heart, evil. i happen to agree with him if this is the case. i would imagine the author sees no hope for man in this regard. i do ... 🙂

this one little part of the novel reminds me of hermann hesse. hesse saw hints of hope, but only in man's intellect ...
 
buzzardkid said:
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in fact everything is in the eye of the beholder. The number of truths is infinite because every observation is an interpretation of something we perceive.
Click to expand...

i dont think its about solipsism.

e.g. thinking of all these photographs of drunken homeless people lying at the pedestrian way.
we all see the same homeless. so not so much room for interpretation.

but i think a lot of us think that there is something wrong. im not speaking about, that its not nice to photograph drunken people and so on...
i mean, that it is ,in a bad way, a simplification.
when im standing in front of the same homeless in real i feel in another way, and even get another depth of understanding. even if i dont talk to him or get more information.

because of human nature our experience is mainly coupled with seeing something.
seeing something is coupled with to know, be informed about it.

so now a photograph can give us the feeling of understanding, even if we dont know anything about the subject. its like a drug, creating the illusion of knowledge.

just think of all the pics, we saw from foreign countries or even continents, e.g. africa.
in some kind we feel to be familiar with these countries. because we have seen so much pictures from there. but unlike to real life this kind of seeing wasnt coupled with our own experiences, and most pictures were just cliches anyway. how much do we really know about this countries...?

nowadays news are mostly pictures.
they can (not must) give us the illusion of beeing so clever and well informed even if we dont know anything.
 
paulfish4570 said:
the author - through the character in the novel - apparently makes an assumption that man is, at heart, evil. i happen to agree with him if this is the case. i would imagine the author sees no hope for man in this regard. i do ... 🙂

this one little part of the novel reminds me of hermann hesse. hesse saw hints of hope, but only in man's intellect ...
Click to expand...

philanthropists often sound bitter...

he want to warn us of the traps we can so easily fall into.

and the better the traps are hidden, the louder u have do shout.
 
"just think of all the pics, we saw from foreign countries or even continents, e.g. africa.
in some kind we feel to be familiar with these countries. because we have seen so much pictures from there. but unlike to real life this kind of seeing wasnt coupled with our own experiences, and most pictures were just cliches anyway. how much do we really know about this countries..."

peter, i would agree with this if you are thinking of middle/upper class people who really don't want people from lower classes in their own little world; they'd much rather view them at arm's length and write a check to a charity.

that could be the cynical motive of a foundation that hires a photographer to make the photos in the first place. the foundation, then, is the source of the grotesque ...
 
SimonSawSunlight said:
while this is certainly an interesting and not a stupid statement, there are clearly a lot of media and arts history and theory related things that he is ignoring. he sounds a little like a bitter romanticist.
there's still a certain amount of "truth" in what he says.
Click to expand...

this is from a fiction, novel. so he used another kind of expression, as he may used in an essay or scientific paper.

in "the dictator" charlie chaplin ignored political theory too.
 
paulfish4570 said:
"just think of all the pics, we saw from foreign countries or even continents, e.g. africa.
in some kind we feel to be familiar with these countries. because we have seen so much pictures from there. but unlike to real life this kind of seeing wasnt coupled with our own experiences, and most pictures were just cliches anyway. how much do we really know about this countries..."

peter, i would agree with this if you are thinking of middle/upper class people who really don't want people from lower classes in their own little world; they'd much rather view them at arm's length and write a check to a charity.

that could be the cynical motive of a foundation that hires a photographer to make the photos in the first place. the foundation, then, is the source of the grotesque ...
Click to expand...

of course i dont mean, that nobody is well informed. or that there are no good photographs.

but in one way or another, i think we can all put a leg into this trap. and its good to be aware of it.
 
Peter_wrote: said:
philanthropists often sound bitter...

he want to warn us of the traps we can so easily fall into.

and the better the traps are hidden, the louder u have do shout.
Click to expand...

What a philantropist to be referred as "Nestbeschmutzer (one who dirties his own nest)" in his own country! Calling Austria "a brutal and stupid nation … a mindless, cultureless sewer which spreads its penetrating stench all over Europe."

These reminded me a saying which I find the last part applicable only to some certain people: "The human race has always been propelled by the four basic needs: food, shelter, mating, and making others feel inferior."
 
paulfish4570 said:
i say it is reality that is distorted (evil), and art is the only way to capture (reveal) this distortion ... 🙂
Click to expand...

Beautifully put Paul.

A friend made a remark that struck me in much the same way - "Digital photos show reality as it is, film shows reality the way it should be".

(NOT trying to start a film vs digital tangent (God forbid!), just adding my friend's observation.)

The quote brought up by the OP is thought-provoking. I think that when anyone writes from a position of strong feeling they will inevitably overstate things, but often maintain a kernel of truth.

Randy
 
This just stress what I realized not too long ago: Perspective is everything.
We were all brought up with a certain perspective, either it's our background, the community we lived in, influential people in our lives, etc.

If the perspective that we acquire reflects a distorted view of reality, then that's what we'll be stuck with, until we acquire or given another perspective.

Bless his heart, indeed.
 
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