("Krieg dem Kriege" Ernst Friedrich 1924)
Some thoughts
on Regarding the Pain of Others: by
Susan Sontag
This was another book author I came
very close to including in my pseudo studio visit paper. Failure and the resulting pain therein
is another important component of my own studio practice. I have explained this
to many visiting artists and scholars who have suggested a link between my work
and Mathew Barney’s work regarding male performance in athletics as well as
concepts of the “ideal” male. I’ve explained that while there are similarities
in our investigations Barney’s “Creamaster” series among others is more about
the representation of the ideal male arrived at through restraint and discipline.
My investigations are far more about many humans inability to adjust to the
demands of modern societies. My work investigates the uncomfortable alliance
between modern industrial life and the primal nature of humanity. Many of my investigations are directly
relative to aspects of Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others.
Photo Credit: Larry Burrows, 1966 (Life). Online Source: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue9711/req26.htm
Identity as it applies to perceptions of
seeing the pain of others. Much of this has to do with how we identify
ourselves. In American society a more appropriate characterization would “which
team are you on”. This idea seems to refer to binary thought and, as I mentioned
in our panel discussion; the us/them dynamic supplying a reference point in how
WE regard the pain of others. I
found it necessary though to look up several of the photos Sontag references in
her book because there are no photo illustrations supplied in the book.
Her book is a collection of nine essays,
which examine the nature of war, how it is represented and how perceived
largely by those who do not experience it first hand through the use of photography.
She refers to Ernst Friedrich’s
book War against War or in German Kriege dem Kriege. I remember looking up the
translation and if there was a possible connection between “kriege” and
Krueger (no). This book was a collection of 180 photographs the medical archives of
World War I. She mentions during this section which addresses art and contexts
have much to do with not only what is perceived but how perceived. She writes
about how the meaning of photographs can be steered by how they are “framed”
contextually as it were and that a photograph set in a vacuum can stir little
more than perhaps an emotional response. This idea seems to draw a thread
between her and Brian O’Doherty, who wrote, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology
of the Gallery Space. His book addresses the volatility of images meaning
based on how they are contextualized in time and space. Images contextualized
through the prism of time is addressed in Sontag’s book when she writes about
Larry Burrow’s series of photos which appeared in the April 1965 issue of Life
magazine. She writes that these photos were meant to highlight war’s “badness”
but that since 9/11 and the ensuing patriotic rise these images become symbols
of valor. To what degree did Larry Burrow’s intentions determine the meaning of
his photos? This idea of
context and its inherent fragility highlights the importance according to
Sontag of words as a means to lend a depth of meaning to images of war and
pain. Without words photos are free to float around unmoored from meaning. During our class’ panel discussion I mentioned
a 1976 mailer that Larry Flynt sent to several thousand Cincinnati residents. The pamphlet
was called entitled “What is Obscene?” He used grotesque images of the war in
Vietnam in this pamphlet to differentiate sexual obscenity with the obscenity
of war. I thought this was an
appropriate example of how photography can be re-contextualized in service of
seemingly unrelated motives. However, in modern and contemporary times many, if
not most of the re-contextualizing happens inadvertently while opening veins to
perhaps more poignant truths. On July 12th 1937 Life magazine
positioned a photo by Robert Capa of a Republican soldier being shot dead
during the Spanish civil war and placed the photo opposite an advertisement for
Vitalis hair tonic. I suppose this juxtaposition highlights the fact that
capitalism’s motives are impervious to our petty episodes of outrage or shock
(next page please).
Sontag’s exploration of the idea that
images of pain have both the ability to repel and seduce inspired my own
interest in the connection between comedy and tragedy. I have long been
interested in exploring slapstick comedy and what may happen when the comedic
is removed in humor oriented content and the viewer is left with little more
than the tragedy typically inherent in slapstick comedy. As horrible to
contemplate, as it may seem I wondered how a slapstick version of firefighters
during the 9/11 tragedy would be received relative to the distance of time.
Regardless, Sontag seems to believe this attract/repulse dichotomy is
preferable over apathy or indifference. That may be true but I believe this can be a slippery slope.
I believe she has been on both sides of this slope. Does parading a plethora of
violent imagery underscore/create an apathetic disposition with regards to pain or can
it elicit meaning in context thereby translating to action as she writes?
Stephen Glass
I also found it interesting that there may
be interesting lines drawn between the war paintings of the 18th and
19th century which capture the “pregnant moments” of battles, Alex
Gardner’s staged photos of the civil war and Jeff Wall’s overtly re-created war
scene photographs. Which then reminds one of the infamous Stephen Glasses’
invented stories for the New Republic Magazine during the 90’s. The blurring of
life and art seems to get blurrier and blurrier.
The problem as Sontag writes is not that
we remember through photos but that if we remember only through photos. She says it well “photos haunt but do not
explain”.
I remember someone saying that the reason
photos cannot really document the reality of war is that a photo cannot capture
the smell of war.
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