When I look around my studio apartment I perceive a great deal of visual input which I tend to control, however when I turn on my computer, step out my door, or open my curtains, a barrage of symbols seduce, threaten, and entreat my senses. The act of looking has always seemed traitorous to me. At times I have felt at war with the visual elements of the world. In response to this imagery waging against my freedom to choose and filter for myself I reached a point, very early on in life, to give myself over to the visceral visual fleshyness and allow it to wash over me so that one day I could learn to wield it for my own purposes and be able to discriminate not by predetermined rules or regulations, but out of true connoisseurship and as a visual veteran.
As time has past I have no doubt that my high intake stance is not only appropriate for future criticism of my own image making, and the work of other artists with whom I hold confidence, but also for my generation’s approach to networking resources, politics and media, and finally discovering the sacred within the vastly profane within the world. I feel that it would be negligent not to consider what I look at and what I produce which I may subject to other’s viewing experience because I see the power it wields.
There are many canonical examples I could to share from contemporary art history and pop culture, but as the hours count down to the inauguration of our president elect, I would like to share an occurrence in today’s political and cultural climate. Starting at the periphery of The Obama Campaign. Obama’s campaign engaged a visual and information driven America partly through bogging and widely propagated photographs in a way that is probably on par with past attention given to past presidents, however special attention and even that online stalker sort-of admiration when you want to know someone better. It allowed a particular kind of citizen to accomplish their own back ground check in a way, for better or worse. Weather the details of his campaign were received as prescribed or transparent something went right.
Moving forward with the Obama term I am more specifically interested in the kind of images that will be provided to us in various press releases and over time via the national archives from recently appointed official white house photographer Pete Souza (http://www.petesouza.com/) a documentary photographer charged with the task of documenting this new era. His task will be an honor to himself as a documentarian and a great resource for future historians and the visual anthropologists of our culture. I am interested in how Souza’s images may differ from Eric Draper’s for example. Draper, a graduate of Cal State Long Beach, held many assignments included the 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the Kosovo conflict in 1999 and the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, before being appointed official photographer to the white house under President George W. Bush. I anticipate a great contrast between these two, and look forward to noting how far, if very far at all, we have come from the origins of the presidentially appointed photography of Cecil W. Stoughton. Cecil was appointed by John F. Kennedy. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/JFK_and_Marilyn_Monroe_1962.jpg)
Regarding our culture, its vivacity for the visual, which in some ways may also mean youthful and seeking knowledge, I think it will also be important to observe how young Eugene Kang holds up as he makes a huge step into the white house boots with Obama’s staff. A 27 year old who is used to writing down tasks by hand, and doing the grunt work to get things done, (but perhaps hasn’t been around long enough to see the results of his own work, until now) will follow as the junior assistant to the president, and hopefully keep his friends updated on non confidential matters via his Facebook account. For a candid look at the cast of characters check out this nice little photographic portrait essay: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/2009-inauguration-gallery/index.html?WT_mc_id=PO-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-MII-ROS-0109-NA&WT_mc_ev=click
In conclusion, and in line with my general rule-of-thumb to soak up visual information to enrich and refine my taste for the cultural relevant, and the stuff of canonical stay-power: I look forward to observing how the next few years of this administration will provide some interesting fodder for the press, (the most highly syndicated mode to view ANYTHING,) the historians, and -- if Obama is successful on the very basic level in which he intends to inspire – the artists and thinkers of this culture. Will we create tangible hope and opportunity for ourselves and along side Obama? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
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