"......in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. "The necessary condition for an image is sight," Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: "We photograph things on order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes."
When I read this I keep thinking about Jesse's work with the marching ants and images of soldiers at leisure in the Iraq. Jesse's video flashes edited stills of soldiers diving into swimming pools at abandon/bombed Iraqi building. I am closing my eyes and trying to remeber if the building where palaces. Its not working for me. Jesse would probably do a better job at describing this peice than I am (Maybe). But I feel it is totally revent to this conversation.
SHOW AND TELL, YEAH!!
The image below is a James Van Der Zee image "Etta Moten Barnett" which is part of the collection of a non-profit I manage. In "Camara Lucida" Barthes writes about the Van Der Zee "Family Portrait" photo (page 44,53). He originally thought that the strapped pumps that the where worn by the women in her sunday best stuck out the most. But after some thought he remebered the necklace she wore and it remind him of a necklace that was worn by one of his family members who passed away. So basically, within the photo the slender necklace reminded him of his aunt who also had a slender necklace, and she never married and died alone. MORBIDE!!!
James Van Der Zee
Etta Moten Barnett, 1982
Gelatin silver print, 10 x 8 inches, sight
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