On June 4th 2009, President Barack Obama (a man I voted for!) took the stage on the soil of one of the region’s most despotic and repressive regimes. But more than that, he was standing in the center of the geography of American imperial projections that has been the Middle East since the British, Germans, French and other smaller European nations were forced to leave it in the 1940s.
(Originally written in response to Obama’s first condescending speech to the A-rabs back in 2009. Reposted to reflect that nothing really has changed.) Details »
Published on May 19, 2011 8:26 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Journalism, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Clash of Civilizations, Colonialism, Imperialism, Israel, Orientalism, Terrorism, Torture, War Against Terror, War Crimes
Aaron Vincent Elkaim’s project on Morocco’s Jewish heritage immediately caught my attention not because of the photographs, but because of words that underpin the ideas and ideals of the project. These words immediately suggested a photographer of considerable intelligence and courage, and willing to accept and understand histories that today lie buried under propaganda, lies and sheer hypocrisy.
From The Series 'Jewish Morocco' By Aaron Vincent Elkaim
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Published on January 5, 2011 4:16 pm.
Filed under: Photography, The Daily Discussion, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Clash of Civilizations, Imperialism, Israel, Middle East, Muslims, Orientalism, Palestine
Larry Towell is looking for money for a new project in Afghanistan and has placed his request on Kickstarter. This would all have been fine had it not been for the fact that he is doing the wrong project.
Larry Towell has been an inspiration, one of the first photographers whose works compelled me to come to photography. So it is with great disappointment that I read his description of what he intends to do in Afghanistan.
The opening sentence from his project description, a project called Crisis In Afghanistan, left me stunned:
For 30 years, Afghanistan has known only civil war.
No it has not. Details »
Published on December 29, 2010 12:20 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Essays On Embedded Photojournalism, Journalism, Photography Tags: Afghanistan, Clash of Civilizations, Colonialism, Crimes Against Humanity, Crisis of Photojournalism, Imperialism, Journalism, Middle East, Occupation, Oil, On Photography, Terrorism, Tribal Areas, War Against Terror, War Crimes
So, my brothers, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than to follow that same Europe? That same Europe where they were never done talking of Man, and where they never stopped proclaiming that they were only anxious for the welfare of Man: today we know with what sufferings humanity has paid for every one of their triumphs of the mind…When I search for Man in the technique and the style of Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders.
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched Of The Earth Chapter Six Details »
Published on November 16, 2010 1:23 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Democracy, Imperialism, Occupation, Terrorism, War Against Terror, War Crimes, Water Boarding
Jeremy Scahill has written a fascinating piece for The Nation called Killing Reconciliation. He and film maker Rick Rowley (of Big Noise Films – see a recent one called The Return Of The Warlords on Afghanistan) traveled in Afghanistan outside the predictability and suffocating inanity of the ‘embedded’ war and bring back some fascinating insights into the situation. Details »
Published on October 30, 2010 3:20 pm.
Filed under: Journalism Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Imperialism, Occupation, War Against Terror
It is probably one of the most blatant uses of photography as propaganda that I have seen in a long time. And I am glad for it because it reveals explicitly how easily images can be put to the service of an agenda of power and entrenched interests. And how easily photographs can mislead if not ‘read’ carefully.’What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan’ the cover screams. The answer is made obvious. The shocking photograph closes the mind, numbs thought, distracts insight and silences protest.
If it were only so simple. If we were only so easily fooled. Details »
Published on July 30, 2010 10:00 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Photography Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Crisis of Photojournalism, Imperialism, Islam, Journalism, Muslims, Occupation, On Photography, War Against Terror, West Bank
Unmarked 737 at "Gold Coast" Terminal Las Vegas, NV Distance ~ 1 mile 10:44 p.m.
Trevor Paglen is a man on a mission and it is one that reminds us that what makes any work of photography relevant, interesting, important or even significant, are the ideas and intentions that inform it. Anything else is merely gazing at pretty pictures. Details »
Published on July 27, 2010 1:20 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Essays On Embedded Photojournalism, Photography Tags: Afghanistan, Crimes Against Humanity, Crisis of Photojournalism, Democracy, Imperialism, Iraq, On Photography, Photo Technique, Torture, War Against Terror, Water Boarding
The tremendous development of photojournalism has contributed practically nothing to the revelation of the truth about conditions in this world. On the contrary photography, in the hands of the bourgeoisie, has become a terrible weapon against the truth. The vast amount of pictured material that is being disgorged daily by the press and that seems to have the character of truth serves in reality only to obscure the facts. The camera is just as capable of lying as the typewriter” – Bertolt Brecht,1931, in Kahn, Heartfield: Art & Mass Media
You can see George Gittoes disturbing film called Soundtrack To War here (both the quote above and the movie is thanks to James Pomerantz interesting blog site A Photo Student):
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Published on February 20, 2010 2:59 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Photography Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Crisis of Photojournalism, Democracy, Imperialism, On Photography, War Against Terror
