Thanks Ken,
nothing compliments photos better than a personal text with character and
inspirational insights.
I have enjoyed your sensitivity and commentary to the changing nature of
people, cultures and societies.
''This building is no longer usable, fixable or safe" you write.
A fine remark that metaphorically parallels how people also feel in the end
of a process...
"The small communities are dying, the population is getting older and the
young people move away. Eventually, only a couple houses remain and the
faded sign is bent over and broken—nobody to fix it or care. Farmland
reclaims all but the cemetary. Another generation passes and the memories
have evaporated like a patch of mist on a cool, damp morning [...] The rural
population has greatly diminished thanks to modern technology [...] I don't
believe any industry has seen such an implosion in manpower as agriculture
has. The rural population in Iowa has been declining for over 100 years now.
[...] We photographers do have a duty to document what we see—not of just
the dying, but of the living. "
Very well descibed!... The social changes that we are witnessing are very
real, very intense and quite fast lately. It's not simply technology,
however. It's the dynamic of the capitalist system which constantly
revolutionises production and importantly transforms social, human life,
which sweeps over traditional relationships and establishes new ones...
Your description in fact reminds me the way fine scholars, like Karl Marx,
were describing the advent of capitalism, its massive socially
transformative capacity and economic tendencies (such as in pushing people
in the cities and allowing big business to 'eat' the smaller ones), in the
19th century. And as much such phenomena of urbanisation and monopolisation
remain a feature of mature capitalism, further ones involve certain dynamic
economic changes in the social production and consumption, which
dramatically affect whole sectors, (i.e agriculture and manifucturing), and
re-arrange them in a global rather national scale now.
Yes, many photographers during the last centuries felt the need to document
those social changes and it does remain a noble and important task for the
present as well. Altogether, within a new globalised economy now which
brings particular new effects to all previously standard ways of social
life, and establishes new social classes, divisions and tastes/cultures,
there are many cases out there to pursue for the photographers with some
social and intellectual sensitivities.
Thanks Ken, very inspirational article indeed.
Christos
On 5/23/06, AG Schnozz <agschnozz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Feeling a little inspired, I wrote a little essay about a tiny
> community here in Iowa. I hope you enjoy it.
>
> www.image66media.com
>
> bottom of page, click on "Killduff - Disappearing History"
>
> AG
>
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