The Amnestic States Of America

(click for full size)

The problem with viewing this one shot, like following TIME's White House photo blog just a picture or two at a time, is that you don't get the larger hit of what Christopher Morris is doing.

What he's doing and what he's done, however, is something remarkable -- at least for readers of a site like this.  Here at The BAG, we have suffered the excruciating drip-drip-drip of that water torture known as the Bush Administration on the most granular, the most temporal, the most "now-to-the-next-photo op" level.

What Morris has accomplished -- even in single shots (at least, once you've seen enough of them to get the hit) is to mark the whole spellbound insanity of it, from its extreme Big Brother phase right up to its smaller-time, but still war conceiving and rule-rewriting present.

I don't have to remind any of you what its been like to viscerally live through this stretch of time -- a period politically worse than the worst we ever imagined -- when Darth Vader and the incurious one fell into 9/11 (the greatest fortune of their lives), the country -- in its vulnerability, and in Bush's passivity, and in Cheney's megalomania and paranoia -- was  almost completely turned into putty.

Certainly, watch the Chris Morris slide show at Alternet that Nina Berman produced (and The BAG helped sponsor), and look at Morris's photo gallery at the Hasted Hunt gallery.

It's a cold, pulled back, angry and crystalline snapshot Mr. Morris offers of what was happening all around us.  Depending on your demographic and your metaphoric wiring, there are different analogies to describe what Morris's pictures do.

In an eerie kodachrome-ish 50's vernacular, we see how a vampire BushCo. drained the country, drained the public, drained the media, and drained auditoriums and convention centers and studio stages of every bit of oxygen and sense of personal agency, morphing ordinary men and women -- especially those who possessed a less complicated relationship with the stars-and-stripes -- into zombies, into mannequins, into plastination exhibits, into Stepford Wives, into wax museum displays, into Twilight Zone extras, into robots, into narcotized scribes inside the Administration's "smoothed out hate slogans" factory.

I'm not as big on the cut-off heads, or the secret service people arranged in geometric patterns on tarmacs and in cornfields.  What leaves me gasping for air, however, are the audience shots -- the crowds exhibiting an unearthly and unbelievable inertia.

And the guy above?  He's like a perverted axis-of-evil twin of the Norman Rockwell "Freedom of Speech" man.  He's the guy in front of the guy who did his part for Lady Liberty by waking up each day and putting on his lapel pin.  He's one of those guys who, six years later, might actually be found demonstrating outside the Capitol because two of his best friends got blown up in Falloujah.

He's the guy who -- no accident, got Bush mixed up with Jesus.

(image: Christopher Morris/VII from the book "My America.")

Comments

[Kevin Hayden]

To some degree, especially among the young, there's always a sense of deference present towards any president. Likewise, the color schemes aren't particularly new.

As you note, however, some of the men-in-black shots do convey an excessive security consciousness and some of the faces display a sense of rapture that is quite scary.

Even scarier are Morris' words on the Alternet link. While he admits the facade is cracking, his sense that it's just temporary may indicate how any event - even a manufactured Tonkin Gulf moment - could manipulate the true believers back to support for Der Schtinker.

This is why I no longer care which Democrat becomes the presidential nominee. I don't want a messiah. I just want a Congress sufficiently strong to oppose ANY further executive worship.

(If I need a deity, I'm sticking with Angelina Jolie)

[Hubris Sonic]

Wow, thank you so much for presenting this Michael. Stunning work.

[Stella]

Thank you for linking to this collection. After saying a prayer that this look never appear on my face, I tried to visualize myself in each of the other photos. I had no success until I came upon the delightful "lawn chair with agents" - that one is a beauty.

[jmac]

That is one scary photo. It's not like he's robotically marching in lock-step to an ideology - he's emersed in it to his soul.

[MonsieurGonzo]

ref : “morphing ordinary men and women... into zombies, into mannequins, into plastination exhibits, into Stepford Wives, into wax museum displays, into Twilight Zone extras, into robots...”

“...What leaves me gasping for air, however, are the audience shots -- the crowds exhibiting an unearthly and unbelievable inertia.”

how insulting! when reality is that 2/3rds of Americans profoundly reject the IRAQ = U.S. foreign policy; Mr. Bush's poll rating is (and has been for some time) a rock-bottom ~30% of the adult electorate; and Republicans were swept out of both houses in 2004 : i suggest that the photographer sees himself reflected in these obsessive-compulsive portraits of personal powerlessness.

personally, i resent being portrayed as a fool, by a photographer ~ himself a bitter observer, too self-absorbed by self-loathing to see US.

[MonsieurGonzo]

right, "swept out of both houses in 2006". nit.

wow... is this how YOU see YOUR AUDIENCE, BAGman??!

[The BAG]

Whoa Gonz. You didn't pick up -- either in the pics or my chicken scratch -- the clear historical context here? And then, I certainly never pictured you in a tie -- or a lapel pin!

[MonsieurGonzo]

this guy's an extremist spewing a "hate-message" of his own design aimed at "Americans" = a fantastic projection of himself, done up in some vague guise rationalization of being "anti-Bush". Has nothing to do with my wardrobe or your goatee, or for that matter, BUSH. He's sick, Michael ~ as a fellow psychotherapist, you can see that, yes?

look at that image... the guy sitting there, staring at his hero = his identity he : that's HIM :-/

still don't see it? take the TARGET = 'AMERICANS,' and substitute some other group: JEWS; WOMEN; GAYS; MUSLIMS; etc. HATE = HATE, and in this fellow's case, he's staring into a mirror, and hates [the audience looking back] what he sees.

[arty]

Granted, most of the pictures are fairly easy shots, destined for a sympathetic audience which is going to automatically pull the "Evil" lever at the first sight of white shirts and ties, short haircuts and "too much" makeup. That's what nice about photographs, and that's why they're up there.
Perhaps the more histrionic reactions come from those also dependent on time worn stylistic tics, in which case the mirror metaphor does make sense. "No, no, it's all about me, yes?"

[MonsieurGonzo]

cannot help but turn this thing over and over in my head, Michael, like some kinda rubik's cube ~ throw out all the text (especially your post :)

...and the inflammatory allusion to 'YOU AMERICANS'... and the best i can come up with is: Morris is trying to depict The Rapture ~ from the Greek harpazo, is translated: "caught up", or "taken away". image caption, thus...

“...a significant percentage of Americans were, and ~30% apparent remain, enraptured by the fear-mongering message and faux nationalism appeal of Bush-Cheney and their allied media demagogues.”

=> MadameGonzo said, "Shame on you! Now go back out and PLAY NICE!" sheesh {blush}

[Piper]

The photo reminds me of the handsome boy singing "Tomorrow belongs to me" in Cabaret

[Blake Incarnate]

There are a lot of these stereotypical characters running around this country. A real bottleneck in an aspiringly progressive country. I know many of them, defiant that global warming is a farce, that it is a natural weather pattern, absolute Bush and Iraq War supporters, ... ...

[tarbaby]

kindumkum

[gmoke]

"...vampire BushCo. drained the country"

There's an Alex Ross illustration of Bush as a vampire holding a drained Lady Liberty in his arms, blood dripping down his face. It's available as a T shirt and you can see the image at
http://www.leftybrown.com/ alex-ross_bush-liberty.jpg

[lukas]

I'm stunned by this series. I didn't know it was that bad. In the past, imagery of adoration like this was used by hitler, stalin, mussolini, mao, ceaucescu. Remember Leni Riefenstahl?
I am also stunned by my recognition of Monsiour Gonzo's sentiments. But, just as black youths (naked from the waist up...) represent crime, and middle-eastern youths (lots of clothes, those guys, not much skin) are automatically suspected of terrorism, so must blue-eyed american beauty become the symbol of fascism.

[Cactus]

Well, I agree with The Bag about the abundance of cut-off heads. They may be interesting on an artistic level, but hard to pin down at the political level. Ditto the secret service photos. But what was interesting about the full frontal facial expressions was their similarity. I almost wish there were more. They all have that 1000-mile stare of the undead from a sci-fi movie. It's eerie. In particular the one here almost looks like he's waiting for the pod people to arrive, or maybe they already have. That light over his head is particularly suspicious.

[Cactus]

M.Gonzo: svp, you are way, way off on this one. If the photographer turns around and focuses his lens on the audience instead of the icon on the stage, what makes that a self-hating act? If I listen to Rush and see that he is a woman-hating bigot, am I self-hating just for recognizing that? Hardly. Many of us have looked around at our country-men and -women with shock and awe at their willingness to abandon the constitution and apparently all reason and sense of community and have been appalled. I hardly think that is self-hatred.

[APB]

Any comments on the Hillary photos accompanying this article: Clianton has large lead in N.H.

[Wayne Dickson]

Whoa! Polarized comments! Freedom to express radically opposing viewpoints is good. That's democracy. But reaching across the gap genuinely to communicate is better. It's not about competition, folks. It's about community. Let's reach out.

I'm going to share these photos with the students in my Image and Identity class, without biasing context, to see how they respond. I'll post their response later.

For me? Tentatively? Respect for legitimate authority is good. As is reciprocal respect by authority for subordinates. Anyhow...

The figures in the photos definitely *appear* as "Stepford Persons." Did the photographer fudge? Did the event organizers fudge by allowing only "Stepford Persons" into the venue? Context matters. Always!

[lukas]

Fudge? Did Americans fudge in choosing to adore a fascist president? Did the government fudge by killing hundreds of thousands in Iraq? Which country are you living in, mr. Dickson? Hollywoodland? Far far away & a long time ago?
Maybe we could rely on modern technology to communicate better. Like tasers & teargas, cluster bombs and *armoured* hummers. Or maybe we should rely on the media to communicate important facts to us, things about lapel pins, cackles, hotel heiress homilies and brainless britney being a worse parent than k-fed.
By all means, let us continue to share and communicate this great democracy of ours.

[PTate in MN]

lukas: "...so must blue-eyed american beauty become the symbol of fascism"

I think that Christopher Morris goes too far when he proposes that the rest of the world hates us because "We have become an ugly nation...Blinded by nationalism." A lot of liberal Americans--those that conservatives successfully labelled the "blame-America first" crowd--have been primed for years to despise the kind of people who now worship GWB. His pictures seem to spring from that bias. And the idea that blue-eyed American beauty should become the symbol of fascism...well, that's just not going to help. Racism is a ugly trait in US society whether it is expressed as contempt for dark skins or contempt for blue-eyed white Americans.

I have a friend, a pretty, well-groomed conservative--yes, a blue-eyed American beauty-- who voted for Bush in 2000 and again in 2004. She is a delightful person who lives in a comfortable, loving bubble of prosperity and kindness. She doesn't know very much about politics, but she wants to world to be orderly and functional, a good place for her children, and she wants to do the right thing. I believe in the right circumstances, she could be one of the faces in this series (though now she is disillusioned with GWB.)

A lot of Americans are like her; They don't think very much about politics, but they want to do the right thing based on their traditional values. And not just in the US. Other nations are also nationalistic; other people trust their leaders to lead competently. And quite honestly, from my point of view, that should be okay. People in the audience should be able to trust their national leadership to be competent, ethical men and women who are concerned for the well-being of the whole nation. Even mindless Hero-Worship of the Flag and POTUS is okay, in theory. The problem comes when the specific hero worshipped is, like GWB, a con-artist, a fraud, who manipulates his base to consolidate his power. Toss in 9/11, a fearful nation, and an exploitative leader and, of course, no good will come of it.

Christopher Morris's photo series documents the worship of the POTUS, but the reason his photos are chilling is because the current POTUS is such a disaster. As the BAG says in his comments, " a vampire BushCo. drained the country, drained the public, drained the media...morphing ordinary men and women...into zombies." Bush IS a fascist, but his base are mostly just people who aren't paying attention to the right things. They wanted an orderly, clean, well-run, well-defended, god-fearing society with a leader they could trust, and what they got was Bushco.

[lukas]

Dear Ptate, I am sorry but the idea that adoration of a leader is o.k. as long as the leader is o.k. is not o.k. Among humans, 97% are morally o.k. 3% are sociopaths. maliciuous egoists. A healthy sense of suspicion towards our leaders is what we need, not adoration. Because historically, the niche for survival of sociopaths and psychopaths has been leadership. Kings and Aristocrats, anyone?

[Cactus]

PTate I can understand in part where you're coming from; I know many people like that. Some are even my friends. It's just that politics is not on their radar. They didn't understand why people were so adamantly anti-bush. They do now, but it took the Iraq occupation to finally get to them. I've also noticed that most of these folks are really involved with family. I don't mean the drama and such, but they tend to have several children or grand-children and siblings and in some cases, parents to care for. I can really understand that that is all they have time and energy for.

Then, sorry to say this, there is the problem of the average IQ. Given that (in CA) one must have an IQ of 50 to be accepted into the special education system, and given that the 'average' IQ of a college graduate is 120, according to some stats, the average IQ is between 100-110 which would include people who graduated high school to college grads. That leaves a lot of people below that who have neither the capacity nor interest in dealing with the machinations of our somewhat complicated political system. All of which puts The W's 24% ratings into perspective.

Finally, I can't think of another president from FDR on who would have engendered such adoration on the faces of audience members, including Reagan. There is something new in the mix here. Is the melding of the "unitary" president with Jesus and the second coming to blame for this? I don't know, but it's very troublesome.

[Christopher Morris]

Someone sent me this link... If the thread is still going, I would like to weigh in with my opinion... For I am the author of the Images....

[Cactus]

Christopher.....If The Bag has not already contacted you, please take this as an open invitation to participate. We would love to hear from you.