Lost in Themselves
The Tate Modern Museum (home of "The Oak Tree") recently exhibited the work of 1950s American Modern artist Philip Lorca diCorcia. Please read the excerpts below, browse the photographs on the website I've included, and respond to the questions that follow.
"For the Streetwork series, diCorcia developed a technique to photograph passers-by unawares. He set up an unobtrusive system of lights that could be activated by radio-signal. When a suitable subject walked past, diCorcia could take a candid snapshot whose elaborate lighting (in the artist’s words) adds ‘a cinematic gloss to a commonplace event’. The resulting photographs project a sense of the solitude and introspection within the bustle of the city.
"DiCorcia has commented:‘the street does not induce people to shed their self-awareness. They seem to withdraw into themselves. They become less aware of their surroundings, seemingly lost in themselves.’"
Explore the four photographs at: http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest99/wonder/corcia/ph1.html
Why do you think diCorcia found these particular subjects "suitable" for his purpose? You can pick one or two, or discuss them as a single subject.
How can you relate this exhibit to the Hemingway's "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber?"
"For the Streetwork series, diCorcia developed a technique to photograph passers-by unawares. He set up an unobtrusive system of lights that could be activated by radio-signal. When a suitable subject walked past, diCorcia could take a candid snapshot whose elaborate lighting (in the artist’s words) adds ‘a cinematic gloss to a commonplace event’. The resulting photographs project a sense of the solitude and introspection within the bustle of the city.
"DiCorcia has commented:‘the street does not induce people to shed their self-awareness. They seem to withdraw into themselves. They become less aware of their surroundings, seemingly lost in themselves.’"
Explore the four photographs at: http://www.noorderlicht.com/eng/fest99/wonder/corcia/ph1.html
Why do you think diCorcia found these particular subjects "suitable" for his purpose? You can pick one or two, or discuss them as a single subject.
How can you relate this exhibit to the Hemingway's "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber?"
posted by Kristin L | 7:54 PM
5 Comments:
DiCorcia's comment can realte to Hemingway's "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" mostly because of the 'lost in themselves' and 'less aware' parts. Macomber himself and his wife were more wrapped in themselves and their own gains into a seemingly happy excursion to Africa, in this way they are both quite lost in themselves, since the professinal hunter, Wilson sees that both have a bit of growing up to do, though poor Macomber in a bull hunt dies by his wife, the most remarkable thing to their awareness, in particular hers, was when the power of death overcame her husband and put her in grief and terror but Wilson would not stop about the subject until she said 'please', basically it was a lesson, a hard one to remember and should have practiced earlier.
The subjects of the pictures were real. They were everyday sights that were brought into a light of their own. The story brought real people into circumstances that are not normally experienced, and in turn they themselves changed. The photos show people guarding themselves from the outside world and in turn their appearances may differ from who they believe they are. The ideas brougth forth in the story and these pictures seems to find the faults with people and either accept or discard them. There is a rawness to both the story and the photos that at times can be hard to find in other aspects of life, and these pieces of media bring back the reality of the human spirit, be it a pleasant thing or not.
diCorcia chose these subjects simply to illustrate that beneath the city lights and booming buildings, there are people who feel very much left behind. While we can clump all the people, the characters together in a city, it becomes obvious by studying the individuals that this is not possible. Look, for example at the pictures. There's a red head, a man, chinese people...they are all very much different and much like what Kerry said "everyone is truly different" as we see illustrated in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber."
Generally photographs are posed. They are not real life portrayals of the subjects but rather a superficial capturing of how the person wants others to view them. The way diCorcia candidly takes his photographs, they capture the essence of human life: showing the lights and darks, the shadows and highlights, the fuzzy and the clear, the realistic. When Francis was on the lion hunt, his life was the diCorcia pictures. He told the reader how he truly felt about the situation but put on a fake "mask" to hide his fears about the quest so that Wilson would not think of him as a coward. In essence, he hinted at the diCorica side of life but ultimately chose the posed photographs, which seems to be the choice made by most people in our society today.
In the photographs, the subjects seemed to be caught up in their own lives and had no idea what was going on around them. Francis behaved in much of the same way. He did not know how the lion felt, he did not even notice when a guide fell off the car. Francis was killed, but whether or not it was due to his self-absorbed nature, I am not sure.
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