Possible trigger warning?
I work in the library of an art museum, and as such, I am surrounded every day with a lot of images. Picasso, Van Gogh, Hopper, etc. In my current batch of books, the ones that will pass through my hands and then go upstairs to the shelves, there is a book of images by photographer Daido Moriyama. Known for his images depicting the "breakdown of traditional values in post-war Japan," his most famous image is that of a stray dog.
However, the book in my hand depicts something different: a woman, naked, curled on her side in a field with her feet bound and her hands bound behind her back. The interior of the book isn't much better, with women stripped down, many of them with their arms tied behind their backs and ropes crossing over and under their breasts. There are some lying in fields on their stomachs, tied up. One image of a nude woman laying face down in a pile of hay in a barn, her arms and legs splayed.
Now, not all of them are like this. Some of the shots are gorgeous images of nudes, others of landscapes.
I know there has been some discussion, here and elsewhere, concerning the America's Next Top Model "Dead" model photoshoot.
Now, I don't pretend to know art at all (children's and YA books are more my style), so I have to wonder:
What is the difference between these photographs and Tyra's? And why is it okay for this man to depict women who are bound and tossed out on the lawn? Is it okay, artistically speaking?
I am hardly saying that one needs to censor art to make it acceptable and palatable for everyone. That, after all, is hardly the purpose of art, be it visual, literary, music, etc.
Perhaps the difference lies in the intentions? Tyra tried to make violence beautiful and sexy. And maybe this guy is really trying to say something important with these pictures and I'm just not fluent enough in the language of visual media to be able to interpret. And yet still, some of the images are so tinged with an aura of violence, so positively uncomfortable and disturbing to look at. And not in a challenging way, but in a way that presses on my very humanity. It is not a picture that you do not want to look at and yet cannot look away. It is a picture that you do not want to look at and so you slam the book shut.
I don't know. Thoughts?
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There's a huge difference between images like that being used in a book and images of models just playing dead to sell products and look sexy. From what you've said, the photographer is trying to document post-war Japan, and get a message across, which is completely different. Not too nice to look at, but a much deeper message, I think. The America's Next Top Model thing was just ridiculous; there was no *point* to it, I don't think.
You have a good point, but my problem with art like this is that even though the photographer is trying to get a message across, he is still using only womens' bodies to do it. Wouldn't war include men as well? To me this is just another example of how womens' bodies are used, how they are a commodity, a tool. It is also another excuse, in my opinion, for voyerism. It just angers me, because I am tired of this type of art. For one thing, it is old, played out; "women tied up", "women in bondage", you would think that most professors would be saying that this type of art is cliche and unoriginal, and yet, here are the editorial reviews (which I find even more disturbing):
Product Description
"This gorgeous, text-free, oversized collection of full-bleed color and black-and-white photographs compiles a host of previously unseen color nudes together with the collection that formed Daido Moriyama's extremely rare fourth solo book, Kagerou, published in 1972. Here, Moriyama captures bondage and nudity with a self-described "samurai tenderness"--a mood, an intimacy and yet also a distance--as if the artist might have snapped the photographs against his will. The stagings are not careful. They are rushed, immediate and mysteriously visceral. Even the knots seem to have been hastily tied. Each of the 60 photographs gathered here suggests that something has happened or something will happen--something furious, resonant or highly anticipated. There are no models smiling, no boasts of romantic conquest, rarely even a face, and certainly no hint of playfulness. Rather, this is a collection of desires, of mothers, sisters and lovers."
About the Author
"Daido Moriyama was born near Osaka in 1938. He now lives and works in Tokyo. In 1960, Moriyama moved to Tokyo to join the eminent photographers' group VIVO. Since then he has collaborated with many prominent Japanese photographers including Eikoh Hosoe and Noboyushi Araki. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential living photographers in the world. "