"This is not a pipe" of Magritte, is an example of a question to reality, like thirst motivates and then drives a quest for water.
Thanks Ray for the quote. This summer I had the pleasure of seeing maybe 50 pictures in that series of prints drawing and paintings.
We all know about staged war photography, where reporters from many reputable news organizations, hungry for news and pressured by deadlines, deliver images prepared on a staged tour. The service is provided with props and actors and dramatic scenes of carnage of civilians.
All this is part of a Faustian pact arranged by fighters in return for guaranteed "access" and safe passage. Here, the personal leaning of these reporters, the political culture of their news services, expectations of the consumers and their wish to not be beheaded, are persuasive in accepting the deal.
I wish to discuss the subject of the value of even "Dishonest photography: the Magritte Conundrum".
So what defense do we have to all this deception. Well humans know about deception. Whenever information is presented, we ask is this true.
With a picture, the image even if compelling wil also raise a question in some of the observors.
This is the point I am interested in exploring. Does this have enough poower to balance even false news reporting by the questions it raises amongs the more careful, analytical and aware?
Art can inform, entertain and raise questions.
The latter is the power of art at it's best.
This is what Dierk, I believe was approaching. To me at least the picture of "dead civilians" in a street triggers instant reactions together with grading of relevence.
Then feeling errupt: horror, disgust, pity, anger and so forth. O.K., now we are energised, but to what purpose?
Our intepretation of the scene of dead people is rapid and based on clues:
manner of death
soldiers present
location of war
previous incidents
evidence of explosions, bullets etc
natural disaster or not
fire or not
and so forth.
Now newspapers and the TV often chose to shortcut our our personal knowledge base and cultural preferences. They do this by changing
the context
titles
juxta position with other articles
invested discussions and editorials.
I saw Mashona sleeping in the center divide in the former British colony, Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe). This was common during the lunch break. At that time, the white dominated ruling party, was moving toward rebuffing Harold Wilson, the then Prime minister of hte U.K., in his efforts to bring about a more representative govenrment.
British anti Ian Smith news papers captioned photographs, and I paraphrase), "Smith government don't bother to Collect bodies of dead." implyiing racism taken to the ruthless dominence and massacre.
Still, the truth came out since the photographs raised a question.
Still, I come back to my earlier and fundamental hope and belief that photography will become a principal means of self and community education.
We have travelled a long way since we navigated by the paths of animals and the seasons. We have also passed the time when mere compasse suffice.
We need to know where we are!
To me, that device is the photograph.
If we all have access to inexpensive photgraphy, then no one has monopoly of the questions we might, can and should raise.
I want to thank Dierk for emphasizing the idea of questions and for your own reference to "Ceci n'est pas une pipe!"
Asher