451. Visual Cartography

  For over 35,000 years, we have been representing what we see and imagine, what terrifies us and what we desire. In dark caves, ancestral shamans used orthogonal projections to cast the canonical profiles of terrifying beasts and undecipherable geometries onto sacred stones and rocks. Like a powerful conceptual telephoto, the shamans compressed distance, creating the world’s first visual cartographies.     The universality of this representational form and its extraordinary perseverance through time confirms that, in the grand spectrum of human history, visual cartography based on orthogonal profiles and mysterious marks characterizes us as a Graphic Species.       New visual strategies arose after the era of simple, planar representations. In Asia, axonometric perspective developed, while in Persia, and during the splendor of the Byzantine era, exotic projection methods were used. It was not until the Renaissance, 600 years ago, that linear perspective was used – thanks to the work of Alhazein, Roger Bacon and Brunelleschi. Renaissance artists, and their successors, came to use the camera oscura and camera lucida extensively as tools to create visual cartographies.           Over the following centuries a kind of natural selection took place among the projection methods used to represent space, with some visual cartographies becoming extinct and others fusing to form graphic hybrids. By the end of the 19th Century the Renaissance perspective became the most accepted for representing the world.             With the appearance of the personal computer in the late 20th Century a revolution occurred in our ways of thinking and representing; photography was profoundly affected. Three-dimensional design programs were created that made it possible to generate cartographies of imaginary spaces, opening the possibility of creating virtual realities. The computer/camera juxtaposition also inaugurated the possibility of creating new forms of visual representation.         The Visual Planisphere   The 360° panorama is an example of what the computer/camera system can attain. Using just a camera the entirety of the visual sphere is impossible to capture photographically. However, when a large number of photographs of a space are taken from a single point (for example, the visual equator, north visual latitude, visual zenith, etc.) and digitally assembled, a total representation of the space is created: The Visual Planisphere. This is an image with total representation in which the forward, behind, above and below coexist. This representation includes discrete units of time. Though taken individually with a single optical instrument, the result, after its digital synthesis, is a conceptual representation of Space and Time.   In the Visual Planisphere, the observer interferes in the Space/Time representation of the world. He is an obstacle because he occupies a place in the space he wants to represent, and so he must cede “his” place in it. In a way, his presence is felt in his absence.     The computer/camera system has transcended the purely optical system of the camera alone and offers a new way of codifying the continum of Space/Time. In juxtaposition, these two technologies have opened the doors to the invention of new forms of representation, free of the limits imposed by earlier technologies. These new codes lead us into new enigmas and invite us to engage in new reflections.     And so, we enter anew the world of Visual Cartography to encounter new surprises and paradoxes.   Like our ancestral shamans and artist predecessors, we keep making new maps and codes as part of our fascination with contemplating, exploring and understanding what surrounds us.   Oscar Guzmán Merida, Yucatan, México, August 2004 mail: ozguzman@gmail.com web: www.oscarguzman360.com   For a full portfolio of images, click on the following links. Please note that you need Quicktime version 6.5 or later.   Polars Planispheres         http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/cartografia/cartography.html      

Thursday, 26 August 2004

453. Carl Mydans (1907-2004)

  Remember Carl Mydans By Dirck Halstead   Modern photojournalism has had a relatively short life. If you start with the premise that the profession that came with the big picture magazines really is only about eight decades old, it is not surprising that the giants who emerged during this period are beginning to die.   In the past month, two of the greatest have left us. First, it was Henri Cartier-Bresson, who more than any photographer defined "the decisive moment," then in August, Carl Mydans, who was without doubt one of the greatest of the original Life photographers.   It was interesting that both photographers received huge obits on the pages of The New York Times. The sheer scope of these obituaries was generally reserved for great writers, poets, designers and heads of state.   Carl Mydans was often overlooked when compared with some of his more colorful colleagues, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks. Some critics called his work ordinary. But for those who knew better, Carl was without doubt the best photojournalist of them all.   What made his work so special was that Carl was first and always a journalist. He viewed his job as being a witness to history. To Carl, the written word was as important as the photography. In a closet in his Larchmont N.Y., home, which he shared with his wife Shelley until she died several years ago, were thousands of reporter's notebooks. He made a lifetime habit of sitting down at the end of every day and meticulously recording what he saw and heard. These notebooks are a huge legacy to historians.   He was the consummate journalist. Time-Life recognized this when they made him b ureau chief in Tokyo following World War II. He is the only photographer in that company's history to be accorded this recognition.   A decade ago, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, turned over its walls to a major retrospective of Carl's work. When the full extent of his remarkable career could be seen in one place, the result was breathtaking.   Like his colleague and friend, Alfred Eisenstaedt, into his '90s, Carl remained engaged in the world. He still had the curiosity of a child. Even though he could barely hear, he made the trek to his office on the 28th floor of the Time-Life building until the mid-'90s.   In 1945, General George McArthur sent a plane to pick up Carl, who was then busy covering the defeat of Nazi Germany, to return him to the Pacific theatre so that Carl could accompany him on his return to the Philippines. The general knew that Carl had remained behind with the defenders of Corregidor when they were overrun by the Japanese, and the Japanese had imprisoned him and his wife for over two years.   This resulted in one of Carl's most memorable photos, of McArthur wading ashore.   Over four decades later, Time magazine sent Carl back to the Philippines to cover the elections that resulted in Corazon Aquino defeating President Ferdinand Marcos.   Carl's son, Seth Mydans, remembers:   What I recall is that my father wangled his way onto Ferdinand Marcos's small plane up to Ilocos Norte on voting day. Everyone else had had to make the long drive and had taken their places around the ballot box at dawn, everyone with their elbows firmly in their neighbors' ribs. My father (he may have been secretly grinning) walked in with the Marcos crowd and simply took his place in front of everybody, causing the usual cries of complaint. But I'm told everyone was very polite to the old war-horse. That image is coupled in my mind with a wonderful photo of Carl, in his funny sunhat, clambering up onto a wooden scaffold in the middle of Luneta Park during a Corazon Aquino rally, with all the other photographers reaching out to hold a hand, an arm, an elbow, a foot and help him up.   As for the Marcoses, we all know about their vivid imaginations. When I first met Imelda at a press conference in Malacanang in 1981, she announced in front of everybody, "Yes, my husband rescued your father from prison camp." I then had my first audience with Marcos, who promptly told me, "Yes, your father is the only photographer who ever got a picture of me during the war wearing my helmet." (These, of course, are the people who said they grew wealthy by "investing wisely," among other things.)   I'd like to mention also that Shelley hadn't lost her touch either. She volunteered to visit a polling place for The New York Times and produced one of the most vivid accounts of the day when a bunch of goons rushed the place and hammered with their pistol butts to get the nuns and schoolteachers to loosen their grips on the ballot boxes.   One other quite extraordinary moment: During the January-February 1986 campaign, my competition may have wondered how I was getting so much access to Marcos. More than once, my father asked me to "carry his camera bags" when he was invited in to shoot a portrait. On one of these occasions he autographed a copy of his new book, "Carl Mydans, Photojournalist," just as he did for other major figures (major like Doy Laurel): "With respect, at this historic moment." Two weeks after Edsa , I flew to Hawaii to interview Marcos in exile. He had not yet moved to Makiki Heights but was in a sad, barren seaside villa. The jewels and pesos and other goodies he had grabbed as he fled were already in some vault somewhere. But my father's book, autographed "at this historic moment," was out on a coffee table for me to see. One could say it was one of his valuable treasures, but I think that even as he fled his palace, Marcos still thought Time magazine and The New York Times could help him get back there again. After all, the cover photograph shows MacArthur's return.     Robin Moyer, who was then the Time contract photographer in Southeast Asia, remembers: Carl and Shelley arrived in Manila in early January, checked into the Manila Hotel and immediately set about work. His special assignment was to cover the Marcos campaign.   Despite the fact he was 79 years old at the time, his boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired our shooters like James Nachtwey, Peter Charlesworth and Susan Meiselas. The Filipino photographers adopted   Carl as one of their own, reserving the best vantage places for him in the photo melees.   Even Imelda Marcos got into the act, proclaiming Carl an old-time friend of the family. "We've known Carl for years. He is world-famous and much taller than his son."   Carl's response was simple. "I met Imelda for the first time last week and Seth is much taller than I am."   Carl's tireless work in the sweltering heat of Manila produced some outstanding images, including one of the several covers during the campaign and a singularly stunning image that showed not only his skill as a photographer, but his sense of history.   At the final rally of the Marcos campaign, having worked his way through a crowd estimated at over a million people, past several layers of photographers and around the security teams surrounding Marcos and his wife, Carl mounted the stage and made what may be the best image of our months of coverage. Reminiscent of the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" photo, Carl snapped a picture of Marcos smugly holding up a banner headline proclaiming "MARCOS WINS!"   Photographer Peter Charlesworth picked up the story: As the press jostled for positions at a press conference to be given by President Marcos, I believe it was Robin Moyer who somehow instilled some discipline into the rabble of cameramen and photographers, setting them into tiered, orderly ranks. Carl was waiting, kneeling quietly in the front row.   Marcos arrived out of a side door and sat in front of a desk, whereupon Carl leapt up, leaned over the desk and started to make close-up portraits of the ailing dictator. Had this been anyone else, the verbal abuse from the massed press, whose views had been blocked, would have been deafening. A camera to the back of the head would have been more likely.   Nothing. There was a stunned silence as Marcos's security guards wondered what to do. Such was the awe in which Carl was held by the Filipino press corps - indeed, by all those present - that nobody moved. After a while, there were a few murmurs from those in the front row, "Er, … excuse me, Mr. Mydans, ..." as Carl continued to snap away, "er, … Mr. Mydans …"   At which point Carl turned around and cast a glance back at the gob-smacked photographers. With a mischievous grin he muttered, "Oh, I am so sorry," as if he had completely forgotten that anyone else was there, then shuffled back to his position in the front row.   In his last years, his friends continually visited Carl. These visits were a source of great joy.   We shall all miss him. We will not see his kind again.   © Dirck Halstead Editor and Publisher of the Digital Journalist       http://zonezero.com/magazine/obituaries/mydans/mydans.html    

Monday, 16 August 2004

455. Gabriel Liévano

  Date: July 28, 2004 5:16:52 PM CDT   Buen día ZONEZERO. mi nombre es GABRIEL FERNANDO LIEVANO QUIMBAY de profesión Publicista y Fotógrafo Publicitario. Dedicado a la bella profesión de la fotografía desde el año 1978. Actualmente soy el Director de la carrera de Fotografía en la ESCUELA SUPERIOR PROFESIONAL INPAHU. Me gustaría contar con sus valiosos aportes a la academia.   Por su atención, mil y mil gracias. cordialmente, GABRIEL F. LIEVANO Q.  

Wednesday, 28 July 2004

457. Angélica Cecilia Olea Jiménez | Hola!!!

  Date: July 22, 2004 8:15:47 AM CDT   Mi nombre es Angélica Cecilia Olea Jiménez, tengo 28 años, soy Chilena y Fotógrafa de vocación, trabajo en Policía de Investigaciones como Perito Fotógrafo Forence, en este momento estoy en la ciudad de Antofagasta, y espero volver a Santiago el próximo año.   Supe de esta página por el Fotógrafo Héctor López, un gran amigo. Me ha encantado la página desde que la vi por primera vez (esto hace tiempo) pero ahora decidí registrarme por que mi mundo (acá de Antofagasta) se ve reducido de gente que pueda gustar del tema y hablar de fotografía, y me siento en casa al ver y explorar zonezero, de veras que me a ayudado, además me entero de las fotografias de otros y de mis compatriotas. Bueno, creo que está claro que me gustaría que mis noticias sean en HTML.   Un beso y mucha suerte, con cariño...   Angélica  

Thursday, 22 July 2004

459. Talia Vega

  Date: July 19, 2004 12:30:05 AM CDT   Hello,   My name is Talia Vega Leon . I am currently studying in Montréal at Concordia University, however, my country of origin is Peru. I am enrolled in the Double Major in Art History and Film Studies as well as the Minor in Photography. I am pleased to have stumbled upon ZoneZero. I believe it gives artists and photography lovers the opportunity to exchange ideas and be informed. I would like to be part of the mailing list and would like to receive your bulletin in HTML.   Thank you, Talia.  

Monday, 19 July 2004

461. What was that about originals?

      My friend Juan Alberto Gaviria, from Colombia, and I, were in Brazil recently, and at a local gas station store I came upon the image of one of Brazils’ super models promoting a brand of beer. It reminded me to another image I had taken 16 years ago in Los Angeles, of one more cardboard cut out with then President Reagan looking on. It intrigued me already then, how the representation of a cardboard woman had such a strong visual impact on the viewer or on the person that was being photographed with the model in their proximity.   Juan Alberto, ever the gentleman he is, was proving to be enormously tender, almost not touching the model, even though the image was nothing other than cardboard. In contrast to the strong hug given to the girl by the man in the earlier picture, in either instance, we are of course just looking at surrogate realities.     This form of projecting ourselves onto images is very much what happens in the cinema, were our subjective self is intermingled with the images seen on the screen. We feel like hugging the actress of our dreams in much the same way.   I might add, as an aside, that the intervening years between the two images brought forth a new element to such work, namely the use of color. Something that was made possible for those of us who started to work with digital cameras. Before, when I used film, it was only black and white that I could afford to produce work in. Today, most of my colleagues who used to work in black and white, and who have now used digital cameras, have also moved from b&w representations to color.   But going back to the issue of representation, let us take a look at the picture taken in the Cathedral in Brasilia, which I visited recently, you will find they have there a reproduction of the Pieta by Michael Angelo in Rome, and the Holy Shroud of Turin. The latter one is a framed enlargement of an X-ray image (already a further level of abstraction), and what do people do there? They take pictures of themselves in front of such representations. For them apparently there is no difference or need to differentiate between the original and such reproductions.   Come to think of it, there is not that much of a difference for all those who go to Las Vegas and have their images taken in front of every sort of representation that one can find there.   What’s more, many of the reproductions that one can find in Las Vegas, are not even the reproduction of an “original” but that of yet another reproduction, which only through the patina of time, became itself an “original”. That being the case for instance, with the Campanile in the Main Piazza de San Marcos in Venice, which was itself, a reconstruction as we are told. Therefore the tower at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas is a reconstruction of the reconstruction that is in Venice. There is no original. (see http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/campanile_di_san_marco.htm)     And then you can find that the canals of Venice reproduced in Las Vegas, happen to be flowing as you stand on the fourth floor of a building, with fake facades all along the sides, and every one quite content as they hear fake gondoliers sing out in what could be said are well intentioned versions of Italian interpretations but certainly no real Italian.       But what is the difference, when President Bush makes a trip to visit the US troops in Iraq for Thanksgiving, and does so only to pose with a fake Turkey for a fake dinner which he never really attended, as he flew in and out as fast as he could (we are told for security reasons). Or the faked landing earlier on the aircraft carrier, dressed up in a pilots suit in order to say “Mission Accomplished”. People want to believe their president and therefore suspend any critical judgment in spite of the blatant deception that is behind all these actions.     Going back once again to an earlier decade, as I was traveling in California, I came across this wax museum, which featured a three dimensional wax reproduction of the Mona Lisa being painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, and in order to give credibility to such images, they of course presented the public with a reproduction of, what else? the painting of the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre in Paris. It was thus that a reproduction lent credibility to yet another reproduction, and all of this recorded by a photograph, which was a reproduction itself with the additional abstraction of being in black and white.     Thousands of people were lined up to pass in front of an altar, one by one, with a clearly marked signed that what was their object of veneration was in fact a replica.   Notwithstanding, the multitude that had come from the entire region, which might easily have been three hundred thousand strong, and gathered in the city of Trindade in the State of Goias in Brazil, found no problem in bringing their devotion and money to the coffers of the church which was being very forthright in telling their devotees that what they had to venerate was a reproduction. All these good people had come for their annual “Romeria Do Divino Pai Eterno” which is celebrated on the first Sunday of July of each year.         We are left with the idea to question the moralistic approach that so many photographers have taken towards the representation of the image in these digital times, in so far as pictures “telling the truth”. As what is the truth that is in fact being told through images?       We believe it is helpful to take a look at how the world actually likes to see itself represented. And how far human nature is capable of bridging one’s own reality with that of the multitude of representations that have nothing to do with being “honest”.   There probably isn’t a single “official” picture of a celebrity or movie star, that is not doctored to make the person appear according to some fantasy of what he or she would like to look like.   For issues related to faith there is no possible evidence that is more real than the desire of the belief. Be that in terms of religious practices or in other aspects of daily living. The stuff dreams and desires are made out off; breach all possible factual evidence that could run contrary to such intentions. How else can one explain the worldwide complacency to deal with surrogate realities as if they were originals?   Take for instance this religious Jew who with his cell phone in hand is bringing someone's prayers to be "heard" by the Wailing Wall, otherwise known as the Western Wall in Jerusalem, in something of a surrogate reality leap of major proportions. The need to be in front of the "original" wall, apparently is no longer a requisite.       When I first exhibited this image of the chair standing there on a pedestal in the street, everyone who saw it was of course convinced that I had placed the chair there using Photoshop. The possibility that this would be a real chair was of course dismissed right away. The more plausible explanation of a digital manipulation made more sense than the extravagant idea that in Washington, DC, there is in fact such a chair. The notion of the real and and the fake had come full circle. We now tend to dismiss the real because it looks like a fake.     The “truth” is that in their own way, when all is said and done, all fakes and surrogates also become their own sort of original.   Pedro Meyer July 8, 2004 Coyoacan Mexico   Please share your comments on this issue with us in our forums.         http://zonezero.com/editorial/julio04/july.html      

Thursday, 08 July 2004

463. Jennifer Gordon | Love to get your news letters

  Date: July 1, 2004 8:03:36 AM CDT   Dear Pedro,   I would love to get your news letters. I have been a photographer and teacher in South Africa since 1976 but I have mostly worked with disadvantaged communities and so have rarely had access to the net. I discovered ZoneZero recently when I started working with people at community organisations in Durban South. I would love to share you Zone Zero with both my University and disadvantaged students.   Warm Regards, Jenny Gordon   Lecturer PhotoJournalism Journalism and Media studies Rhodes University Grahamstown  

Thursday, 01 July 2004

465. From Robert Capa’s 'Dying Republican Soldier' to Political Scandal in Contemporary Mexico: Reflections on Digitalization and Credibility

  Do we believe what we see or do we see what we believe? What are we shown and how are we shown it? How have we learned to trust documentary photography and whose interests have been served by that credibility? What truth value do we attach to seeing and what has seeing to do with thinking? These are some of the questions that guide this discussion of the most controversial photograph in history -- Robert Capa’s ‘Death of a Republican Soldier’ -- and reflections on political scandals almost seventy years later, created by the recent broadcasting, and rebroadcasting, of videotapes showing members of the Mexican leftist party, Partido de la Revolución Democrático (PRD), accepting what are apparently illicit monies.   I want to return to some issues I raised in an earlier essay on Zonezero, “What’s documentary about photography?: From directed to digital photojournalism,” and examine issues of digitalization and credibility, thanks to the Internet, which has permitted an ongoing interchange with readers in different countries, and provided the forum to address these topics.   In my earlier essay (and the dialogue sustained between John G. Morris and myself here on Zonezero), I argued that the Capa photo was directed. I believed that the soldier was pretending to have been shot, staging the scene for the benefit of the photojournalist. I arrived at this conclusion based on the predominance of set-ups in Spanish Civil War photography, as well as the existence of images made by Capa, at the same time and in the same place, that are clearly not of combat. Research by Richard Whelan has recently established, at least to my satisfaction, that the photo is “authentic,” that it is of a Republican militiaman captured by the camera’s lens in his moment of death (Whelan). However, although the image is not directed, it may ironically be nonetheless the result, to some extent, of the photographer’s intervention in the situation.   The polemics surrounding this photo have been well synthesized by Whelan in his latest essay on the subject, “Proving that Robert Capa’s ‘Falling Soldier’ is Authentic.” There, he supplies new evidence that has led me to change my reading of this image, above all when combined with John G. Morris’s reflections in our published dialogue. A crucial clue offered by Whelan was provided by a forensic expert, Robert L. Franks, who noted that the soldier was not charging forward, but “had been standing flat footed when he was shot.” To understand the importance of this observation, it must be combined with the testimonies of Morris and of Hansel Mieth, a German photojournalist who worked for Life, and a friend of Capa. She told Whelan that Capa had recounted to her that he and the militiamen had been “fooling around” when fascists infiltrated the lines and suddenly began to fire on them.   Capa also divulged to Mieth that he was “haunted” by the episode. Mieth’s recollection of Capa’s malaise about this image was corroborated in Morris’s refutation of my arguments, to which I did not pay sufficient attention: “I don’t care whether it was Federico Borrell or not, but a man died, and it bothered Bob the rest of his life” (Morris-Mraz, 2003). I should have asked myself why “The Greatest War Photographer in the World” would have felt uncomfortable with his most famous image, why he would not have talked about it in his autobiography, and why, as Whelan notes, “he altered details in his several accounts of the circumstances in which he had made his photograph.”   The answer now seems clear, and the mystery resolved. The Republican militiamen were pretending to be in combat for Capa’s camera, when a fascist machine gun killed this soldier just as he was posing. It is the coincidence between the fact that the photojournalist had focused on this individual at precisely the second before he was shot that makes this the most famous of war photographs. However, Capa’s involvement left him feeling that he had somehow been responsible for the man’s death. Hence, his reticence to discuss the photo, as well as a certain confusion in recounting the events surrounding the photograph’s taking, decisions that are seen in a very different light if we assume that he staged the image. What this case establishes is that our interpretation of a picture is based on the presumptions we bring to the act of seeing it, but that research and reason can enable us to perceive it differently.   We live in an ocularcentric culture that has become increasingly hipervisual: we believe that what we see is true. However, although we presume the objectivity of what we observe, William Blake long ago alluded to both the subjectivity of vision, as well as its intimate relation to how we behave in the world: “As your eye is, so you see it; as you see it, so it is for you; as it is for you, so you act.” Vision is the most powerful of our senses, and it is also that which has been most amplified by modern technology. Microscopic cameras make visible things that could never be seen by the unaided human eye, telescopic lenses bring close sights too far away to be discerned normally, and videotape recordings can be made of that which is often hidden from view. To add yet another turn to the screw, the technical expansion of our ocular powers is exponentially increased by the diffusion of documentary images by television, which brings them into our homes, and presents them as “information”.   Mexico has recently been convulsed by a case of corruption that was recorded on videotape, and which is since being rebroadcast continuously. Some politicians of the PRD were taped while receiving money from a businessman under clearly suspicious circumstances. Time and again, ad nauseam, we witness them stuffing dollars into briefcases, plastic bags, and their pockets. These images “prove” the misconduct of the PRD for the mass media that, as everywhere, are controlled by the powerful and wealthy. Of interest here is why these images have received widespread and continual diffusion, what in fact they prove, and whether or not the credibility they enjoy is progressive or reactionary.   Mexicans are not as naive about political malfeasance as “Americans,” for example. The absence of a genuinely free and critical press in the US, either electronic or written, allows for an “organic” and deep-seated corruption, such as that of Vice-President Richard Cheney who regularly receives largess from the Halliburton Company, the biggest contractor in Iraq, without any real objections being raised. The party dictatorship that ruled Mexico for 70 years fomented great corruption, because those who assumed office did so with the understanding that they would not investigate those who were placing them in power. This situation also left certain skepticism in the Mexican public.   The easy answer to why these videotapes images of the PRD have received great diffusion is that reactionary interests control television. The “information” it supplies is, in general, “disinformation”. However, as Neil Postman remarked in a pathbreaking critique of this medium, “Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information -- misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information -- information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing” (Postman, 109).   In this specific case, the corruption of the PRD politicians, though documented visually, is small potatoes compared to the misconduct of other parties. There appears to be abundant evidence that the PAN campaign of Vicente Fox was illegally financed in part by money from outside Mexico, funneled in through the organization, Amigos de Fox. And, the extraordinary venality of the PRI is a commonplace in Mexico, but its excesses were such that The New York Times (never a friend of real democracy in Latin America) was recently moved to describe the stealing of the 1988 election as “one of the most flagrant electoral frauds of modern times” (Editorial).   To its credit, the PRD has acted to rid itself of unscrupulous individuals, while the other parties have protected their black sheep. Hence, the media focus on the dishonesty of some perredistas could also be explained as a result of that fact that this party has insistently presented itself as an alternative to political malfeasance.   However, the easy answers are not always the right ones, or at least are not entirely so. In the television medium, pictures overwhelm words and inhibit reflection. Hence, the prominence given the PRD tapes is, to a certain extent, a function of the medium itself: the corruption of the PRD is more real than the malfeasance of the other parties, simply because it can be seen (again and again). Anybody who works in a medium such as television will always choose pictures over words. However, images are mute; they can only speak by being placed in contexts, which then define our perception of them. Since the contextualizing media for documentary images are almost always in the hands of the wealthy and powerful, the readings are almost invariably reactionary.   The credibility of the medium is fundamental to the façade of information, and the degree to which the mass media will go to defend its pretense of truth-telling has been illustrated recently in the cases of Brian Walski and Patrick Schneider, punished for altering images digitally, when the real manipulation has been coverage by the U.S. media that is consistently skewed in favor of the George W. Bush government’s imperialism. The mass media are more enlightening as objects of analysis than as sources of information: though we find out little of what really occurred, we can chart shifts in policy by changes in the propaganda we are served. That is why the Internet has developed as the most important alternative to the mass media, and it has been the pivotal factor in organizing resistance to the U.S. neo-conservative regime, in bringing about the downfall of the Partido Popular in Spain, and in preventing the coup against Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.   These reflections lead me to revise my defense of non-altered photography in my conclusions to my earlier essay, “What’s documentary about photograph?” Forced to reconsider my ideas by Pedro Meyer’s essays on the Walski and Schneider cases, as well as by a conversation with Guillermo Yañez that grew into an interview published at his site, Malojo.com (Meyer, 2003; Meyer, 2003; Yañez-Mraz, 2003). I have come to feel that I was defending photography as a unique art form rather than considering its role as an believable information source. I would now argue that the salient question we need to ask is: whose interests have been served by the aura of credibility enjoyed by the documentary form? When we think about documentary images, what often comes to mind is the work of crusading reformists and critical photojournalists such as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Tina Modotti, Eugene Smith, Sebastião Salgado, and Paolo Gasparini, to name only a few.   However, in general, the credibility of photography has filled our heads with the fantasies created by advertising and the disinformation propagated by the mass media. The advent of digitalization destroys that credibility, and liberates our critical capacities. We are not freed from “reality,” as Pedro Meyer argued in an early essay, but we are emancipated from the pretense of reality created by the façade of information (Meyer, 1994). We need images to know the world, but we need even more to be able to think about them in a way that delivers us from the manipulation of the mass media.   John Mraz mraz.john@gmail.com   BIBLIOGRAFÍA   * Meyer, Pedro. 1994. “Los desafíos de la tecnología a la creación fotográfica latinoamericana contemporánea”, La Jornada Semanal, 267 (24 July). * Meyer, Pedro. 2003. “In Defense of the Photographer Patrick Schneider”, ZoneZero Magazine. http://zonezero.com/editorial/octubre03/october.html * Meyer, Pedro. 2003. “The Los Angeles Times Fires a Photographer”, ZoneZero Magazine. http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/altered/altered.html * Morris, John G. and John Mraz. 2003. “Correspondence: John G. Morris - John Mraz, November 2002-March 2003,” ZoneZero Magazine, http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/mraz/mailsmm.html * Mraz, John. 2002. “What’s Documentary about Photography? From Directed to Digital Photojournalism”, ZoneZero Magazine, http://zonezero.com/magazine/articles/mraz/mraz01.html * Editorial, The New York Times, 15 March 2004. Postman, Neil. 1985. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Viking Press. * Whelan, Richard. 2002. “Proving that Robert Capa’s ‘Falling Soldier’ is Authentic,” Aperture, 166. * Yañez, Guillermo and John Mraz. 2003. “The Double Border: Chemical Photography>       http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/mraz2/mraz01.html  

Thursday, 24 June 2004

467. Lázaro Sandoval

  Date: June 21, 2004 8:06:49 PM CDT   Me parece que Zonezero es sin duda la mejor web de fotografia en México y America Latina. Soy fotografo desde hace 19 años en el estado de Morelos y he trabajado con el Maestro Carlos Jurado en la catedra que impartre en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. Quiero incluir materiales en la pagina de zonezero y me den la oportunidad de hacerlo.  

Monday, 21 June 2004

469. The icons of this war...

    I don't think it's too far fetched to assume that the main icons of this second US war in Iraq in 2004, still in process, will be the amateur digital pictures of the tortures performed on Iraqui detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.   In spite of the tens of thousands of pictures produced by professional photographers during this war, these amateur images are the ones that I believe will mark this period in history. These will be emblematic , not only for the abuse performed on the physical integrity of the humans beings depicted in them, but will also stand in for the shame many feel for allowing themselves to be swayed in providing support for this war that indeed was not necessary. The use of systematic disinformation (remember the weapons of mass destruction?) and torture will probably become the downfall for this administration.   It will then have turned out to be that digital cameras became for the Bush administration what the tape recorder was for the Nixon White House.     The images that stand out, at least in my imagination, of the first war in Iraq, are those that CNN broadcasted live, with night vision lenses that gave a green cast to the scene, showing how Baghdad was being bombarded. Back then CNN was still in the news business, whereas today they appear to be more in the advertising business, and you can tell that their loyalty is no longer to the news but to their advertisers whom they try not to alienate much in the style of Disney, by presenting information that is free of controversy. The levels of disinformation by the US news media are almost as appalling as those of the US government.     I participated in a Congress on Photojournalism in Lima Peru, last week, and one of the speakers was Cristóbal Bouroncle the head of Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Baghdad, who shared with us some very interesting information about the news business at his agency.   He mentioned that today, the accountants are just as important in the decision making process as the news editors. In other words, decisions made in the newsroom have to meet with budgetary concerns on an equal basis. In many ways this makes a lot of sense, as the operation is after all a business. However, one should also wonder when are profits the driving decision maker rather than the news, of course that is something we shall never find out.     He also explained to us that western professional journalists are hard to come by, in the context of Iraq, because obviously the security risks are so high. While local photographers are doing a very good job as they all have access that westerners do not enjoy, among many other reasons: language and belonging to certain tribal groups.   Cristobal also noted that they get paid far less than western photojournalists, which is a big plus with the accountants. And last but not least, with digital cameras, they are able to send out people new to photography to take pictures with minimal training, and they come back with very good imagery. Interestingly enough among other very revealing bits of information, Cristobal estimated that roughly 50% of the consumption of AFP pictures sent out over the wires is consumed these days by internet outlets, and not just by printed news media any more.     If the most emblematic images from this war were photographed by amateurs, if agencies are able to send out people to take photographs who have never taken pictures, but have access to certain places, and if we are into a tidal wave of imagery coming in from all the digital cameras that are flooding the world; I am sure that traditional photojournalism as is being taught today in schools all over the world, better have a second look at reality and be prepared to tell their students that things are no longer how they used to be and therefore need to adjust their expectations.   The same thing might also prove to be of interest to all those active photojournalists today, who are seeing their bread and butter documentary images being displaced by pictures of celebrities and movie stars.     Pedro Meyer May 23, 2004 Coyoacan, Mexico   Please share your comments on this issue with us in our forums.         http://zonezero.com/editorial/mayo04/may.html      

Sunday, 23 May 2004

471. Just whose photo is it, anyway?

As the facts stand, the BBC does not look good. Whatever the eventual outcome of its spat with Reginald Davis, this much is clear: the organisation scanned a copy of a photographer's image and used it, without his knowledge, to illustrate a programme antithetical to his work.   Davis has photographed every royal family in the world, and has built his career on developing good contacts with them. He was perturbed, therefore, to realise that his image of Prince Charles' and Lady Diana's wedding had been used to illustrate a programme on royal infidelity. Not only did this offend Davis' sense of honour, it also jeopardised his business contacts.   Of course, Davis can't really complain when his images turn up on programmes he doesn't like, if he has signed away the rights to his entire archive.   This is a moot point - Davis argues that he thought he would be contacted to agree each image use. And in fact, this would have been in line with the original spirit of the BBC's standard TelPic agreement. But, whatever the rights and wrongs of the use of the image, the scanning is another matter altogether. First of all, the quality of a scanned image will inevitably be inferior to the original. If he wanted to labour the point, Davis could argue that using a scanned image damages his reputation - implying he produces inferior-quality images. And, perhaps more disturbingly, if images are scanned rather than directly accessed, photographers are completely reliant on their clients to tell them what has been used where. As the Davis/BBC argument shows, this can easily be overlooked. And, as Davis found out, organisations that forget to inform photographers about old picture usage can also forget to pay.   This point also raises the issue of image piracy. The BBC acted within its rights in as much as it had permission to use Davis' image - but a company with no rights to the images whatsoever could easily act in the same way.   As the US army has perhaps demonstrated, digital technology is making it harder and harder to control picture use, and photographers can hardly be expected to monitor every possible publication of their work. Indeed, Davis is now concerned that his image has gone up on the BBC website without adequate protection - opening his image up to be copied across the world with a simple click of a button.   It is difficult to see what photographers can do about this unauthorised duplication of their images. Few can afford to track down every use of their images and even fewer to legally pursue the matter in law, perhaps the only two things that could effectively put a stop to it. Interestingly, Corbis' legal team has started to do this, aggressively protecting its intellectual property by pursuing what is, effectively, theft.   But leaving this question, photographers could learn some practical lessons from Davis' experience. First, read the contract carefully. The BBC used a standard industry contract but, it seems, extended the boundaries far beyond its initial remit. Expensive and time-consuming as it would be, photographers should really get legal advice before they sign anything - whether from their own lawyer or an industry trade body. These days, it seems, little can be taken on trust.   Diane Smyth British Journal of Photography www.bjp-online.com       http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/smyth/smyth.html    

Monday, 03 May 2004

473. Deborah Orloff

  Date: March 24, 2004 12:01:12 PM CST   Please register me   I'd Like my news in html version.   Great website! Nice to see such a variety of artists from around the world!   Thanks for providing this important venue for contemporary photography.   Deborah Orloff Associate Professor of Art Director of Photography University of Toledo Department of Art Center for the Visual Arts  

Wednesday, 24 March 2004

475. Madrid, March 11, 2004

    I would like to symbolize yesterday’s attacks in Madrid with this image. I took this photograph yesterday at Alonso Martínez station, about an hour after the attacks. Many should not have been there. I should not have been there; I should have been in Atocha station half an hour earlier.   There are nearly two hundred people in the picture, approximately the same number of casualties. It is quite a diverse group not very different from the group of people that was traveling on the fateful trains. We were very lucky.   I have been traveling all across Madrid for 35 years using the public transport, as a photographer and observer I take a good look at my surroundings everyday. Whether inside the wagon of a suburban train or a subway train it is the same kind of crowd.   I could picture that girl with the headphones listening to the latest CD from the band Estopa; the kid with the marker skimming before morning class, and next to him there is a girl about 18 going through the traffic rules book before taking her drivers test. A South American immigrant reading a free paper, his discolored hands giving away yesterday’s long hours of work. A group of women in their 50’s loudly commenting on the meal they are cooking, the clothing they have to iron or singer Isabel Pantoja’s latest scandal. Behind them a tanned man sleeping profoundly, his face pressed against the window but not bothering the 30 year-old mother sitting next to him that has her daughter sitting on her lap; she is on the way to drop her off at the nursery before going to work. Standing further in the back is a woman reading a book, and despite her evident pregnancy no one offers her a seat; some people just stare, others are absorbed by their newspapers, three boys in their 20’s -one of them wearing a suit but carrying a backpack- talks enthusiastically about Zidane’s goal in yesterday’s match.   There are people from every corner of the world: Ukrainians, Polish, North Africans, Colombians and Ecuadorians, people from La Mancha, Extremadura, Leon and Madrid; people of every trade: construction workers, waiters, secretaries, salespeople, executives. A cell phone rings and a 15-year-old girl answers, bringing that special smile into her face, we can imagine who she is talking to. Another 20 year-old is sending a message, a middle aged man avidly reads his sports newspaper …suddenly there is a great blast and I can’t imagine anything else... I am crying and the cell phones keep on ringing...   Julio Lopez Saguar jlsaguar@wanadoo.es       Exterior and Hall of the Atocha station. People have constantly been gathering here over the last days and have turned the station into a real shrine.             http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/saguar/saguar.htm    

Saturday, 20 March 2004