Jumble-aya

Look what I opened the shades to see this morning!

Mouse over the image to see my reaction.

I also woke to find: 1.) a couple of great new comments on the "Camera Industry Peaked" post (check out the latest Featured Comments, especially the one from Steve Jacob followed by a serendipitous counterpoint from Barry Reid); 2.) that the Cubbies won Game 2 (Chicago, dry a tear, you rock and all is not yet lost); 3.) that there are two days of Nikon rebates happening on Nikon's three most desirable DSLRs, the D500, D750, and D810 ($500 off on the latter); and 4.) that Steve McCurry is vowing to do anything he can to help Sharbat Gula after her recent arrest in Pakistan.

I'm not saying I know what to think about any of this. The leaves aren't even off the trees yet, and I still need more autumn; we did sound a bit too much like a bunch of old GBGs (grumpy beardy guys) when waxing pessimistic about the state of photography; and the Cubs can't win the World Series, as it's a known Sign of the Apocalypse, not that there haven't been plenty of those recently. I rented a Nikon not long ago, the D7200, and a) was extremely impressed by it and b) decisively concluded I would most likely never again buy a DSLR. (That's just me, of course—your mileage may well vary.)

Finally, the whole notion of the fate of the subjects of famous pictures just vexes me. I have no idea what to think. As a person, Sharbat Gula of course deserves our concern. At the same time, allowing the subjects of famous pictures to become political symbols is at best arbitrary. We don't own our own image, and in some cases our image doesn't really stand for us. What are we to make of the fact that Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother became an overweight middle-class grandmother allegedly annoyed by the fact that she had never been paid for her famous picture? You can't argue that Lange was being exploitative, either, because Dorothea was working for the government and wasn't allowed to keep the rights to her own work—by law, work-for-hire for the U.S. government belongs to the American people. She never earned anything from Migrant Mother either, except indirectly. The "original print," insofar as there is one, is (or was—perhaps it's been removed for safekeeping and to prevent theft) in a bank of filing cabinets in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

At the same time, the subjects of many photographs not only have a past, they have a future, too, and the future constantly changes the past. Meaning is never completely fixed or stable.

Sharbat Gula in her role as the Afghan Girl.
Her new role is to highlight Pakistan's stern stance toward its refugees.

I'm reminded of a commercial photographer I once worked for. One of his signature images, prominently displayed at the local lab, was of a goldfish in boldly-lit  blue-colored water with a vivid swirl of green. But when I went to work for him, I learned that the green swirl was colored oil and that the shoot had killed the poor fish—the disused aquarium sat neglected in a corner of the studio, the water half-evaporated, its glass sides caked with a goo of oil, algae, and mold. So is the picture a celebration of the vitality and beauty of the fish? What is our relationship to the subjects of our pictures? What about our duty?

Every photograph of life contains a little death, and every shining moment portends an indeterminate, inscrutable future. The meaning of that is chaotic and uncategorizable, a jumble and a mystery.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Terry Letton: "Sharbat is not alone in her fate. She is but one of many refugees who are in the same predicament. They have no way of capturing the world's attention, unlike her. We can only hope that whatever response comes from this is not only to help her, but also the rest."

Comments

[Winwalloe]

If I may add another photo news: there's a 3 books, 1500 pages, 24kg, 695£, 1000 limited boxset from Don Mccullin, called "Irreconcilable Truths".

I've vastly enjoyed reading the autobiography itself by the way.
For the other volumes of the set I don't know what's already been published.

[Daniel]

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html

Mike, if you want a print of Migrant Mother or any of the millions the Library of Congress has on file you can order them. Get a print. Used to be able to get a high resolution scan to print out. Have done this for teaching purposes in the past. FSA images and many more are available.
If nothing else the catalogs are often interesting to look at.

[Matt O'Brien]

I downloaded and used 'Migrant Mother' to see what it looks in print and also to see what it might look like using current post processing tools (software, paper, ink). It was an interesting experiment. A friend and experienced photographer with a good eye was 'gobsmacked' (another interesting word) when he saw one of the prints on Hahnemuhle Ultra Smooth Matte paper.

It might be a useful subject for your current printing project.

[Did that once!

http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/12/print-offer-dorothea-langes-migrant_15.html

--Mike]

[Animesh Ray]

"Every photograph of life contains a little death, and every shining moment portends an indeterminate, inscrutable future. The meaning of that is chaotic and uncategorizable, a jumble and a mystery." You said it better than anyone else did, to my knowledge. A photograph transcends the life it depicts, but includes the life of the photographer as well. The photograph doesn't even have to be of life itself. A photograph of the manifestation of a life past may also have an "uncategorizable mystery", at least to some individual who continues to live for a while afterwards.

[Stan B.]

"What is our relationship to the subjects of our pictures? What about our duty?"

You may want to ask that of World Press Photo with their recently minted... “creative documentary photography” category.

[Dave Van de Mark]

Regarding your early snow, I hear you regarding your "no, no, not yet" feelings. On the northwest coast of California, I view October as a transition month from "total" summer to "total" winter, but I always pray it falls mostly into the summer camp.

Not this year, alas! Tons of rain already.

[Peter]

Regarding World Press Photo's new documentary photography category that doesn't require adherence to traditional standards of photojournalism: welcome and overdue.

I wrote a piece about the controversies surrounding those standards being violated, most notably in photo competitions like World Press Photo, including whether subjects of documentary photography should be paid...

https://medium.com/endless/new-media-manifesto-fe36f19457d0

[Cw.]

A couple of years ago, a girl I knew who was just a week short of her 21st birthday un-expectedly passed away of a previously undiscovered heart defect. The line at the visitation was as long as any I have ever stood in, which was a testimony to the sweetness of her soul and kindness to others. As I finally rounded the corner into the room where she was surrounded by her family, there was the centerpiece table with a candle on each side of one of the portraits I had taken during my senior portrait session with her just a couple of years prior. I stood silently amongst people commenting on what a beautiful and fitting portrait it was of her, most of whom did not know I had taken it. I said nothing as a complex wave of emotions and thoughts went through me. I was touched that of all of the photographs of her there, it was chosen as the centerpiece, and yet so sad. Who could have ever imagined at the time I took it how it would one day be displayed in a way it was not intended.

Cw.

[David Lee]

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the file and will print and hang a copy of it. About the weather out your window, in my part of the world we are entering now what we call "BBQ Season". Temperatures coming down already. Just last night we were at around 28 degrees. We might need to use a sweater soon.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Snow already? Here in Lisbon today it will be 30 C...