BAGnewsNotes

Visual Politics: China Quake

I'm in NYC this week attending the NYPhoto Festival as well as the VII agency seminar, so I might be a bit briefer over the next few days.

One thing I'm thinking about is how the visual earthquake coverage simultaneously distracts from and sustains the running pre-Olympic China criticism.  The image above -- ostensibly just another crisis picture, and part of the wave that pushed pro-Tibet demonstrations and Beijing's ecological problems out of the media eye -- can't help but serve as a replacement, raising questions about China's hyper-industrialization and it's humanitarian cost.

What strikes me about the "missing" snapshot is the extent to which it is identifiable by type -- especially here in New York.  After 9/11, one does not look at this image and wonder, at least right away, about the fate of the couple so much as one wonders which disaster it is this time.

NYT China quake slide show -- (May 15, 08)
In Departure, China Invites Outside Help (NYT)

(image 1: David Gray/Reuters. Dujiangyan. image 2: Andy Wong/Associated Deyang. Press via nytimes.com)

Your Turn: Welcome To New Orleans

People in New Orleans are not just angry but also horribly embarrassed by this Times Picayune photo -- featuring Mayor Nagin and the police chief -- illustrating a recent city purchase of SWAT and riot equipment.  Compounding the reaction, Nagin used the occasion to welcome the NBA All Star Game to New Orleans this weekend.  I should also mention, the photo was taken on the floor of the Superdome.  The armored vehicle in the background was part of the buy.

Your thoughts, lamentations, weapon tutorials?

N.O. police show off new crime-fighting equipment -- (original NOLA story with long comment thread)
Blinded By The Light? - (BNN)

(image: Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune.  New Orleans.  February 12, 2008. nola.com)

No Forrestalling The Inevitable?

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Somehow, poring over the Super Tuesday Eve pics, all the best material kept coming up McCain.

Perhaps it was pure coincidence, but I take it to mean that Hillary and Barack will only be passing another mile marker, while tomorrow, across the fence, we are likely to witness the true opposition emerge.

Anyway, I found these three images interesting in different ways.  Regarding the first shot (from Saturday), I did a double-take after reading the caption.  It states:

Sen. John McCain carries luggage belonging to a member of the traveling press as he boards his charter plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport en route to Nashville.

It's an open secret that McCain caters to the media (see below).  But the symbolism of McCain, like a bell man, actually carrying hefting the reporter's baggage for them?  That's too perfect.  (Is he delivering coffee, too?)

In the second shot, we see John and Cindy talking to reporters in Connecticut on Sunday. (Geez, what's with all the coffee cups?)  In the foreground -- already in our face -- is an issue of LIFE from July '67 featuring the fire aboard the USS Forrestal.    Stationed off Vietnam, McCain was on board the carrier at the time (about three months before he was shot down and became a POW).  The fire, by the way, was caused by a fighter jet accidentally firing a rocket while on deck.

Work With Me, Baby

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by John Louis Lucaites

Anxiety over nuclear bombs is perhaps more pronounced today than anytime since the Cold War, marked by a persistent worry about unfriendly nations, renegade scientists, and terrorists of all stripes gaining access to enriched uranium and nuclear warheads. And yet, outside of a few editorial cartoons here and there, images of “the bomb” are missing in action.  For all the talk of nuclear terror, you might expect to see the image of the explosion at Nagasaki or any of the hydrogen bomb explosions obliterating Pacific atolls.  These were a staple of the Cold War era, but despite other similarities with the War on Terror, they are not to be seen.

At least that was the case until late last year when this image appeared on the front page of the NYT website as the anchor to a story about the debut of the 2007 Miami Beach Art Expo titled “Work With Me Baby.”

The photograph, created by fashion photographer (and music video director) Seb Janiak, clearly puts “the bomb” back in the public eye, but it does so in a manner that functions as an artistic challenge to the prevailing optic of the Cold War image of the bomb.  The Cold War visual relied upon a logic of absence (there was no destruction to be seen, just the explosion in all of its grandeur), the formal perfection of the “mushroom cloud” (the explosion cast in terms of abstract symmetry), and it operated under the complete control of a technologically sophisticated. military-industrial complex (only with such access could one get close enough to take such pictures, whether from 35,000 feet or in the Marshall Islands).

In place of the structured absence, the target of destruction is now evident as we witness the immolation of an actual city (Los Angeles). 

September 11, 2007

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Photographer Alan Chin, who was in lower Manhattan on 9/11/01, and captured the image above (among many), returned again yesterday to observe the mood around the Ground Zero site on the sixth anniversary of the WTC attack.  The following images, posted without commentary and more reminiscent of street photography than editorial or documentary photojournalism, is Alan's personal record of the occasion.

As Alan explains:

This is my home and I grew up with the World Trade Center.  Yesterday, I heard the official ceremony on the loudspeakers, but that wasn't my priority. These pictures are as much about me as they are about the event. I have been back on previous anniversaries -- the first year, I was on assignment -- but this was the first time I felt like I really wanted to be there all day.

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(All images courtesy of Alan Chin.  New York.  September 11, 2007.  Posted by permission)

Katrina At Two

On the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster, we are fortunate to have a photographer as talented as Louisianian, Lee Celano, supplying material for Reuters.

The anniversary presents a mandatory backdrop for a parade of political figures.  Obama was prominent on the scene on Monday, and Alberto Gonzales was a big visual magnet yesterday, as was the arrival of Karl Rove.  Of course, last night's arrival of the President was the most ignominious.

As counterpoint, I offer you a shot by Celano that is circulating, hoping as many of his pictures as possible get picked up from the newswire.

The image above is a wonderfully "woven" play of two parts, evoking such tried-but-true metaphors as "the difference between day and night" and "being left in the dark."  Among the stew of elements, it collages:  (a.) Lower Ninth Ward residents gathered near (b.) an illuminated crucifix, which is leaning against (c.) a (supposedly temporary) trailer, as (d.) George Bush's (e.) helicopter fleet flies into New Orleans.  (Since Katrina, Bush exclusively helicopters into disaster areas.)

Katrina And The National Media: Absence Of A Soul

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As we head into this week's commemoration-a-thon, I'm thinking about how the national press has had such a hard time dealing with Katrina's ongoing humanitarian disaster.

Although this photo is poignant, speaking to futility and abandonment, the NYT Mag primarily devotes its Katrina second anniversary cover story to the insurance industry.  Likewise, the theme of TIME's anniversary cover story two weeks ago (which we discussed here on August 10) dealt mostly with flood engineering and the vulnerability of marshes, swamps and barrier islands.

I suppose the absence of even one soul in either cover is supposed to convey profound loss and disappearance.  Still, I find this tendency disconcerting.  Just like the lead image from Saturday's front page story in the LA Times (or the previous TIME cover on the catastrophe, for that matter), we hardly see a sign of life.

So, are these images effective for the absence of people, or do they reflect a disaster without a human face?

(image: Sasha Bezzubov for The New York Times. NYT Magazine.  August 26, 2007.  nytimes.com)

Renaissance From The Inside

This is the third of three posts featuring photographer Alan Chin's images from FEMA's Renaissance Trailer Park in Louisiana.  The theme of this post is "interior space."

In my mind, what Alan Chin accomplishes with his Renaissance series is to bring a sense of humanity and individuality to the residents of this forsaken FEMA complex.  What I'm wondering about, however, at least with these interior images, is the trade-off with the physical impoverishment of the place.

Take Bonnie and Larry, for example, whose living quarters provide our primary view inside these vehicular shacks.

Witnessing Larry as "homeowner," peering down the way from his front door, taking in this powerful and complex personal moment between the couple sitting side-by-side; and witnessing Bonnie in an intimate moment with her dog, it seems Chin's storytelling skill (with its allusions to more conventional domesticity) actually overrides, if not overwhelms the assessment of life in a tin can.

I find the same heartening effect in the scene of the man with the guitar.  Only by benefit of Alan's explanation does a harder edge emerge.  He writes:  "He wanted to get a job playing at a church, but besides being borderline mentally ill, he was not much of a player."

An important thing Alan has done in these "indoor" scenes is to show more than just housing units.  The man with the guitar is in the laundry shed which he he seeks out, he says, for the quiet space.  The man in the doorway is picking his son up from the daycare spot.  Rosie O'Donnell paid to have it built and the YWCA pays the salaries of the workers there.

Like stories with opposite intentions, however, not all of Alan's "inside" photos are so personal.

Consider the picture of the kitchen space which is losing the battle with order.  Even more evocative, however, is the shot of the baby room inside the daycare center.  The cribs and the figures in perfect line with each other reflect the mindless, bureaucratically-authored linearity and rectangularity just outside.  Add in the remoteness and lethargy of the caretaker, and the abject isolation of the baby inside the circle, and we're reminded how cruel it is to invoke the idea of Renaissance.

(Alan wishes to express special thanks to Jennifer Warren, who provided invaluable assistance in the creation of these images.)

(Previous Chin New Orleans posts at The BAG: Renaissance Clash (9/17/07); Renaissance Village From The Outside (8/16/07); The Katrina Landscape (5/3/06); St. Rita Ongoing (10/8/05);  And Then I Saw These (9/27/05).  All images courtesy of Alan Chin.  Louisiana. 2007.  Posted by permission.)

Renaissance Clash

This is the second of three posts featuring photographer Alan Chin's latest images from the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. The series profiles the Renaissance Trailer Park (NOLA article, April '06) on the fringes of Baton Rouge.  The BAG also asked Alan to provide some description of events.

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By Alan Chin

This was a "town meeting" in which residents were trying to elect a new committee of representatives. The guy in the MSPP T-shirt is Wilbert Ross, the President of the Residents' Committee, who had resigned the day before pending a new election. He wanted to continue in his role, however, whereas others wanted new faces.

The meeting started with a discussion on formaldehyde poisoning, then moved n to whether Ross should continue being the president of the residents' council. His partisans said that he should, another faction wanted to oust him.  After a woman called him a "crack head," he had to be physically restrained, as you can see.  (The woman in the next shot with her hand in the air is strenuously pro-Ross, while the woman in the shot after that -- who looks like she's having a revelatory moment --  is expressing anti-Ross sentiments.)

Without any clear discussion, the meeting degenerated into bitter acrimony with a lot of screaming and yelling, ending up in a crushing emotional deflation and no resolution of anything.

My photos could be of a church meeting or a personal dispute. But even without the specifics, I think they show how this as a place that is emotionally wrought, on edge -- and chaotic whenever the residents officially gather.

People actually don't socialize much, however, even though there are 1500 people in 600 trailers.  Most stay inside the air-conditioned trailers and keep to themselves, or just a few others. There did not seem to be any real sense of community or solidarity, despite the fact that they do acknowledge their common interests and problems.

Part of it is the heat. There is no shade anywhere among the rows and rows of trailers, and it's scorching hot half the year in Louisiana.  Several residents said that they did not really know the families living right alongside them, regardless for months or years. One man died right before I got there; his body lay in his trailer without anyone noticing for three days in the July heat.

Probably in the autumn and winter people do hang out more. But in summer, even the basketball court is empty all day long. Another reason, also, is that this is a disparate group of people who did not naturally choose to live in the same neighborhood. And it is not that stable a population.  As the more capable families leave, they are replaced by new people coming from smaller trailer parks that are progressively being closed down.

Many of the residents are there because they were the kind of people who didn't have great family or social networks to begin with, and were estranged or alienated even before Katrina. They had nowhere else to go, and once in the camp, they got stuck there.

So Renaissance Village is the largest FEMA camp, and will be, at some point, the last. Which means that the population at each stage becomes the most impoverished, the most vulnerable, the most unemployable. And that, in turn, means that the social element breaks down more and more, as the more natural leaders leave.

(Previous Chin New Orleans posts at The BAG: Renaissance Village From The Outside (8/16/07); The Katrina Landscape (5/3/06); St. Rita Ongoing (10/8/05);  And Then I Saw These (9/27/05).  All images courtesy of Alan Chin.  Louisiana. 2007.  Posted by permission.)

Renaissance Village From The Outside

Over the next couple of days, The BAG offers you photographer Alan Chin's latest series from New Orleans.  In contrast to previous posts, I felt these images should not be overly reduced.  (If you click, you can still increase each another 20%.)  Below, Alan participates in some Q. and A.  And as before, he has generously agreed to engage in any discussion.

BnN:  You've now documented the Katrina disaster at regular intervals over the past two years.  What have you been trying to accomplish?  How would you weigh the success and weaknesses of the work?  Are you planning to go back again?

AC: Actually, this was my ninth trip in 2 years. I have tried to make a "big picture" documentation of New Orleans in this time. First was the storm and its horrible aftermath. Then i followed several families to Arkansas and Ohio. Next, the physical devastation. After that, Mardi Gras, and the beginnings of rebirth. Finally, stagnation. Last year, there was a six-month period when things did improve. But that leveled off, and it seems that what was going to get better did, but that the rest remains frozen and paralyzed. Only half of the 500,000 pre-Katrina population has returned, and many people say that they will leave again.

My work, at its best, has shown this process. However, one of the limitations of photography, as I've pointed out in the discussion here, is that often you need words to fully explain a situation. Context has to be provided. Photos can be misleading, or very narrow. Also, there is the seduction to make beautiful images in the midst of despair. Sometimes this beauty, though haunting or ironic, can also provide too much aesthetic pleasure, and therefore create too much distance from the reality, be that as it may.

If i go back, it will be to take a look at the elite and wealthy culture, which was barely affected by Katrina and now either likes to pretend that the disaster didn't happen, or finds it a blessing in disguise.