Yesterday it was cold and I am not at all (a little bit) ashamed of how I spent it. How did I spend my day? Well it started early enough with some eggs and that was followed with a quick walk to my local video store. I spent a number of minutes perusing the aisles before deciding on one million different dvds and renting them all. In addition to the million rented movies I also had one Netflix movie to take care of. The Netflix movie in question was a documentary about the photographic work of Shelby Lee Adams called The True Meaning of Pictures. It was a relatively interesting film investigating the people Adams photographs and whether or not the work is exploitative of its subjects. The subjects being poor families living in Appalachia. The photographs aren't pure documentary photographs nor are they completely allegorical. Most of the 'experts' interviewed talked about how the photographs could, potentially, reenforce negative stereotypes of this unique community of people. I think they might have a point. Though the film also had interviews with Adams and many of the family members he photographs. With one exception all the people didn't think he was doing anything wrong. It was interesting, could have had a little stronger opinion on the matter but all and all pretty good.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Yesterday Was Cold and Yes I Am A Glutton For Laziness
Yesterday it was cold and I am not at all (a little bit) ashamed of how I spent it. How did I spend my day? Well it started early enough with some eggs and that was followed with a quick walk to my local video store. I spent a number of minutes perusing the aisles before deciding on one million different dvds and renting them all. In addition to the million rented movies I also had one Netflix movie to take care of. The Netflix movie in question was a documentary about the photographic work of Shelby Lee Adams called The True Meaning of Pictures. It was a relatively interesting film investigating the people Adams photographs and whether or not the work is exploitative of its subjects. The subjects being poor families living in Appalachia. The photographs aren't pure documentary photographs nor are they completely allegorical. Most of the 'experts' interviewed talked about how the photographs could, potentially, reenforce negative stereotypes of this unique community of people. I think they might have a point. Though the film also had interviews with Adams and many of the family members he photographs. With one exception all the people didn't think he was doing anything wrong. It was interesting, could have had a little stronger opinion on the matter but all and all pretty good.
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2 comments:
That film and those photographs kind of made me want to move to Appalachia and withdraw from the world. Or, rather, it made it seem like that might be possible, and that gave me hope.
I am using this film for the English class I am teaching this spring at Kingsborough Community College.
Oddly, I didn't even like it that much (more or less felt like it was a propaganda piece for Shelby Adams) but it goes along well with a discussion of the FSA photographs and the idea of truth in photography in general.
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