Fertile Image Working Surface

JEM COHEN

It's late and I should at least be in bed if not already asleep but I have been on the net for awhile and came across some work by Jem Cohen, a filmmaker whose work I appreciate. Here is one of his shorts documenting the Occupy Movement.

 

Singing Man

Still from a set of street videos I'm working on ..... a little of this and a little of that

WITNESS

This morning I was looking for something to stimulate me, get me going and I got the juice to write this blog entry from looking at some photography. Surfing around the web I ended up on the website of James Nachtwey and was reminded of the power of journalistic documentary photography and also what a theatrical bubble we live in here in the US. A bubble evidenced by how enthralled we are by hundreds of articles about the lives of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. And please don't think that I am dismissing the tragedy of drug addiction because I know it all too well but the way that celebrity drug addiction is used as theater here in the states is ridiculous. We do not "witness" pain and suffering. We make fun of it. But if you look closely at James Nachtwey's photographs you will witness real suffering, some of which exists here in the bubble too. 

If we can just take your eyes off of American Idol for a moment and pay attention to world around us. Maybe we can begin to see who we are and the world we live in a bit more clearly and be moved to real change .....

Check out WITNESS. It got me moving this morning.

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ 

Silver Spring Boy

You can't tell from this shot but this little boy was at an outdoor concert in Silver Spring with his parents, listening to 1970's tunes written by the Band and Neil Young. Even his parents were way too young to really remember many of the tunes being played by the old coggers on the stage. You'd have to be a real hippie to remember the words to  "Down on Cripple Creek" ... that kind of appreciation for good music can't be faked. 

 

Silver Spring Oldies Concert

Just the Way I Like It

This is a candid portrait of a friend that shows exactly what I like about this kind of photography. It is the moment just when the subject recognizes you are there with your camera but the instant before they have an opportunity to prepare or protest. 

  

Broadcasting Into Eternity

The Interview Project that David Lynch started last June is done. They interviewed and posted a new person's story every three days for a year ..... and now it's over. This reminds me of the end of "The Making of the Representative for Planet 8" by Doris Lessing. At the end of the book all the people's stories are collected so that they can be left as a relic of a planet that is dying. The closing of this project feels like part of a similar process that is not quite done but is definitely underway, moving towards a complete history;  a memory of all the stories of all the people who lived here on Earth broadcasting into eternity over the internet.  

 

Florida Avenue & New York Avenue

This man stands on New York Avenue everyday that it isn't raining hard or snowing. He has been seen on the street in a light drizzle.  He starts at about 8:30 in the morning, leaves for lunch at about 11:30 and starts again after lunch until about 3 PM.  He does speak to anyone. I have tried to speak to him but he isn't interested in talking to me but has allowed me to taken his picture. I like this shot the best because it  allows him to remain anonymous.  I'm sure he would like it that way.  

7th and T Street NW - 10/23/09 5:15 PM

Left Handed Propaganda

Last night I reluctantly went to see Capitalism: A Love Story. It was a chance to see some good friends so what the hell. The first fifteen minutes or so into the movie  thought to myself maybe I was wrong about seeing this picture, maybe something big is about to happen but by the end I was more convinced than before that the situation is almost hopeless. What situation am I referring to? Well what I'm talking about is a real critical analysis of the current moral crisis that led to this mess. An analysis of the  foundational cornerstones of just about everyones thinking; both the economic winners and losers alike. I want a critical analysis that reaches and convinces a broad audience to at least consider that some of what they have believed in the past is just not true anymore or maybe never was.

Without giving away the play by play of the movie, I think that just when Moore has the audience right where he wants them he trots out a bunch of folks to deliver the deciding blow that have such a questionable past with regards to their own behavior that for many of us it renders whatever they have to say as "you gotta be kidding, these guys have the answer"  ......   even though much of what they say is actually true.

I realize that the folks he "trotted out" are his champions and I don't mean to say he doesn't have the right to adore them but in the interest of delivering a clear message I think one has to be careful about including the voices of people one worships. The individual speakers I'm sure are wonderful people but one's affiliations does warrant consideration is a situation like this.  

In conversation with friends after the movie I expressed my disappointment. A dear friend who is also a really smart guy pointed out that if Moore had the made the film I wanted to see less people would have come to see it because more didactic films tend to have smaller audiences. After thinking about what he said I have to agree. It is a real shame but we can be counted on to behave true to form, like the addicts that we all are, and avoid the medicine that would make us well. 

Somewhat of a far reaching aside, but not really .....

I remember the last time I saw Steve Cokley speak in public. His audience had shrunk to almost nothing and Steve was a shadow of his former self. I hope he is alive and well somewhere having explored the reasons for his sacrifice, he is now preparing his next steps towards peace.