eyelight wrote:
I'm really torn....  Photographically, I think they're very well done (obviously).  However, the marraige of beauty and violence is a bit disturbing. 

I teach a class in the rhetoric of popular culture and we spend a lot of time discussing the power of visual rhetoric.  One of the most challenging issues is: how much of an impact does violence perpetrated against women in images affect the collective psyche of our culture?  The research would seem to suggest that imagery such as this has a desensitizing effect at best, and at worst - normalizing effect...

The desensitization has occurred, and it becomes increasingly difficult to grab anyone's attention. This editorial is on pretty safe ground considering the current content of any current movie, tv show, et al

eyelight wrote:
One of the most challenging issues is: how much of an impact does violence perpetrated against women in images affect the collective psyche of our culture?  The research would seem to suggest that imagery such as this has a desensitizing effect at best, and at worst - normalizing effect...

i think that is really secondary here - the main impact SHOULD be from considering who is doing the violence to those women.  if we have to show images of kittens and babies being slaughtered with nightsticks to get the point across that police states are not desirable, then do it.  stupid patriot act.

i tend to take things very politically.

alexwh wrote:
For anybody who ever saw a couple of photos by Helmut Newton.

1. A dead looking blonde on a balcony floor with a Yellow cab beneath in the Manhattan street. ( I am sure Newton must have paid off some cab drivers)

2. A woman trying to keep a chained hotel room door from being busted open.

These photos are bad imitations by a photographer who has good press agents but talent that never even gets close to Newton's.
Alexwh

while i love to call foul when someone rips off newton, i'm not seeing that here.  i agree that meisel doesn't even touch newton's strength in terms of vision, but these particular images do not evoke any of the same violence that newton alludes to in the photos you mention.  these are really topical and contemporary, and i like the message, but i have issues with some of the stylistic choices.  a couple of those images are quite arresting though (pun intended).

Christopher Bush wrote:

while i love to call foul when someone rips off newton, i'm not seeing that here.  i agree that meisel doesn't even touch newton's strength in terms of vision, but these particular images do not evoke any of the same violence that newton alludes to in the photos you mention.  these are really topical and contemporary, and i like the message, but i have issues with some of the stylistic choices.  a couple of those images are quite arresting though (pun intended).

You are absolutely right.

Specially when you mention that they are topical and contemporary. The implied violence of Newton's was and for me still is much more disturbing than what look like stills from a TV movie. Much of contemporary stuff has lost its subtlety. Shakespeare would have problems writing a contemporary screenplay. Producers would say, "We don't want all that verbage, just say, "I want to fuck," instead."

This is why film noir is still so popular. The lighting was interesting. The widespread use of wide "umbrella canopy"lighting (where actors can move at will without changing the light on their faces) is what makes so many contemporary movies look like contemporary TV movies of the week.
Alexwh

dale99 wrote:
Is he related to Jay Meisel?

Not sure.

Justin wrote:
I agree that as a political statement, it would be better done with Semitic-looking people or poverty-stricken types. I don't see any great societal problem with fashion models being treated badly by Homeland Security.

then you are not nearly paranoid enough

Christopher Bush wrote:
then you are not nearly paranoid enough

I'm concerned as anyone about the potential and actual excesses inherent in our "enhanced security" in the post-9/11 era. The balance between security and freedom is inherent in any society.

Sorry for straying off-topic. Um..... I see he had to rent out a dog, too. Wow. Did he front this on his own, or working off some type of commissioned arrangement?

Justin wrote:
Sorry for straying off-topic. Um..... I see he had to rent out a dog, too. Wow. Did he front this on his own, or working off some type of commissioned arrangement?

HAHA.

Not sure.

Do male "models" look real? Were the security guards and the police with the K-9 dog on their duty? They are shorter than the female models. I think they were soft when they cuffed them. They were afraid of getting kicked in the balls. That probably explains why some of the female models overposed.



I love "non-sense politics" fashion photography.

Garry k wrote:
Dona , my sincerest apologies for jamming up your post by reposting your photos x3....adn then not being able to locate this thread again

Thanks for not making me cry.

Dax wrote:
Awesome.. Now I can't wait for my issue to arrive! =P

Dude, funny thing is every day we get more freebies. Like I found those images online. In the future, we would be chained to a computer appliance. No more prints. Save trees. Am I making any sense? I gotta return to studying math.

studio L wrote:
hmmmm, I don't find it arresting or thought provoking at all.

I mean, the point of this piece is....?

To me, I find it trite and pointless-almost sarcastically surreal.

As if beautiful white fashion models would ever receive this form of treatment.

It's a slap to those who really experience this sort of treatment at the hands of the status quo power elite.

Summary-nice camera/production work to be sure, lame as hell concept.

Boring.

I think that's why the model are "beautiful white." If this was being done to models/pretty white girls, wou't the middle clabe enrged, instead of iging it the way they do.

This is slightly off topic but, in 1997(or 98) a punk rocker was run over by a rich kid in Amarillo, Tx. There were witnesses that heard the rich kid make comments like, "I'm a ninja in my caddy," "I bet he liked that." ect. He convicted, but only given probabtion. The moral of the story, if you're not pretty/all american, your life is worthless.

I think this editorial had to be done using white women; its the only image that really  inflames people against a situation. If they were black, middle eastern, male, fat or ugly, no one would care. No one would think twice about it.

Unfortunate, but thats the world we live in.