Comments on: Hard to read http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/ The unbearable lightness of Lex. Enjoy! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:14:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Balancing Act http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412992 Balancing Act Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:31:19 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412992 Max, Kris and DoorKeeper - I agree many of your points. I feel that perserving history through photographs is our way of retelling what truly happened and leaves less room for future interpretation. As far as what DoorKeeper was saying in that I believe that there are others out there taking photo's for the wrong reasons. Are they taking them for financial gain or are they taking them to capture and memorialize history? I feel that in order for us as well as our children to learn from our past we need to know what happened and how people felt at the time. In my opinion photos tell the best story. And frankly not all stories are happy ones. It is true that a picture says a thousand words without speaking a word. Max, Kris and DoorKeeper – I agree many of your points. I feel that perserving history through photographs is our way of retelling what truly happened and leaves less room for future interpretation. As far as what DoorKeeper was saying in that I believe that there are others out there taking photo’s for the wrong reasons. Are they taking them for financial gain or are they taking them to capture and memorialize history? I feel that in order for us as well as our children to learn from our past we need to know what happened and how people felt at the time. In my opinion photos tell the best story. And frankly not all stories are happy ones. It is true that a picture says a thousand words without speaking a word.

]]> By: MaxDamage http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412991 MaxDamage Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:55:42 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412991 Sorry doorkeeper, but the photographer has a job to do -- preserve history. The picture of the falling man is no less important than the picture of USS Arizona's magazine exploding or the picture taken on Mt. Suribachi. We live in historical times, and those pictures tell of it. To not take those pictures would be to forever lose the times, places, and events that defined the lives of our forebears. Can you imagine the Great Depression? When you do, do you not think of an image of a farm wife in threadbare clothes on the step of an unpainted shack in the dust bowl? Or perhaps it is the image of a man in a suit selling apples on a street corner? Or maybe a Model A filled to the tipping point with all the property a family owns? Those images were due to photography, somebody creating a snapshot in time of the moment. That snapshot lives on, reminding us constantly of what went before. Which is why the blackout of 911 video is so disgusting, as if we can wish away that day by simply not showing that it happened. - Max Sorry doorkeeper, but the photographer has a job to do — preserve history. The picture of the falling man is no less important than the picture of USS Arizona’s magazine exploding or the picture taken on Mt. Suribachi. We live in historical times, and those pictures tell of it. To not take those pictures would be to forever lose the times, places, and events that defined the lives of our forebears.

Can you imagine the Great Depression? When you do, do you not think of an image of a farm wife in threadbare clothes on the step of an unpainted shack in the dust bowl? Or perhaps it is the image of a man in a suit selling apples on a street corner? Or maybe a Model A filled to the tipping point with all the property a family owns?

Those images were due to photography, somebody creating a snapshot in time of the moment. That snapshot lives on, reminding us constantly of what went before.

Which is why the blackout of 911 video is so disgusting, as if we can wish away that day by simply not showing that it happened.

– Max

]]> By: Casca http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412990 Casca Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:17:53 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412990 Very moving, and a suitable memorial. Very moving, and a suitable memorial.

]]> By: The Owner's Manual http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412989 The Owner's Manual Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:09:28 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412989 Pictures of falling humans from 9/11 are suppressed because they invoke not the feeling of tragedy we are groomed to feel but because they stoke outrage. It's the difference between yellow ribbons of yearning and battle flags of resolve. There are those who think we can mourn our way to victory...if they want victory at all. Pictures of falling humans from 9/11 are suppressed because they invoke not the feeling of tragedy we are groomed to feel but because they stoke outrage.

It’s the difference between yellow ribbons of yearning and battle flags of resolve.

There are those who think we can mourn our way to victory…if they want victory at all.

]]> By: jpr http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412988 jpr Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:40:21 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412988 From moments such as these, including the Nazi death camps and the attack on Pearl Harbor to name a few, the pictures we have are increasingly all we have left to remember. Survivors, and their memories, are passing away leaving us only with little more than imagery to jog our collective memory. We look at what they experienced so we don't forget. Ever. I'm not ashamed of documenting history, in all it's forms. The photographer that day was doing his job in capturing the moment and telling the story with his pictures, however shocking and uncomprehending it was at the time. From moments such as these, including the Nazi death camps and the attack on Pearl Harbor to name a few, the pictures we have are increasingly all we have left to remember. Survivors, and their memories, are passing away leaving us only with little more than imagery to jog our collective memory. We look at what they experienced so we don’t forget. Ever.

I’m not ashamed of documenting history, in all it’s forms. The photographer that day was doing his job in capturing the moment and telling the story with his pictures, however shocking and uncomprehending it was at the time.

]]> By: Jeopardy http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/comment-page-1/#comment-412987 Jeopardy Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:33:54 +0000 http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/09/11/hard-to-read/#comment-412987 Max, Sad to say, but you're probably right about never seeing those pictures again. Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I'd bet that pictures of the Katrina dead will still be OK, though. The author got to that pont, and in a way that's probably better than I could have. "...the pictures that came out of the death camps of Europe were treated as essential acts of witness, without particular regard to the sensitivities of those who appeared in them or the surviving families of the dead. They were shown, as Richard Drew's photographs of the freshly assassinated Robert Kennedy were shown. They were shown, as the photographs of Ethel Kennedy pleading with photographers not to take photographs were shown. They were shown as the photograph of the little Vietnamese girl running naked after a napalm attack was shown. They were shown as the photograph of Father Mychal Judge, graphically and unmistakably dead, was shown, and accepted as a kind of testament." Should we ignore the concequences of evil and hope that the act of ignoring it makes it go away? Max,
Sad to say, but you’re probably right about never seeing those pictures again. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I’d bet that pictures of the Katrina dead will still be OK, though.

The author got to that pont, and in a way that’s probably better than I could have.

“…the pictures that came out of the death camps of Europe were treated as essential acts of witness, without particular regard to the sensitivities of those who appeared in them or the surviving families of the dead. They were shown, as Richard Drew’s photographs of the freshly assassinated Robert Kennedy were shown. They were shown, as the photographs of Ethel Kennedy pleading with photographers not to take photographs were shown. They were shown as the photograph of the little Vietnamese girl running naked after a napalm attack was shown. They were shown as the photograph of Father Mychal Judge, graphically and unmistakably dead, was shown, and accepted as a kind of testament.”

Should we ignore the concequences of evil and hope that the act of ignoring it makes it go away?

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