Advent, Day 11

[kyburg]

Whack. Yay intarnet.

The Online Guide to Whistling Records. Stuff to train your budgie by.

Identity Kits
Within contemporary theory these photographs are an acceptable portrayal of poverty, with no direct visible indicator to the disadvantaged human subject. The photographs' contents become the vehicle through which the viewer can attempt to understand the bleakness of a human existence deprived of material objects and possessions.

Mount St. Helens Webcam.

There. Your dose of eclectic for the day.

See you tomorrow!

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

On the second item: /me wonders who dreamed up that theory? If we can't put a face on an issue, how can we deal with it? Yes, it is a journalist's place not to further victimize the subject of her story, just as it is her place to become part of the story or worse yet create it. OTOH, the story still needs doing justice. The task here is not to ignore the person whose story it is, but to tell it with dignity and taste... to capture the emotion without sensationalizing it more than it should be.

Journalism is never black and white, not in the 21st century, anyway. It's full-color, real-time, and hard decisions have to be made. Removing the person from their plight... is a bad one.

Context: I was, for a short while, a professional journalist. I never had to make too many hard decisions... but on my personal ethics and recognizance I went and studied the matter. I have some rather strong feelings about it... :)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

To that, I can only propose that this is one way of viewing the condition in a fashion most people can relate to.

Looking through the pictures, I am reminded that race doesn't impact things much. But financial levels do.

A different perspective - and as a tool, a useful one.

[lackofgravitas.livejournal.com]

I think it's the relating to the situation that's key. I can't look at, say, the black and white photo on the homepage there, and put myself in those people's shoes. Too obviously different. But I can look at those possessions, and be struck by how it would be to own that, and only that. A quantity of stuff smaller, and of massively less value, that the tiny sub-section of my belongings I take out of the house in my bag every day. You also get subtler hints of what these people's lives might be like, bypassing any reaction of revulsion - instead of sores around a mouth, you get three tubes of glue; instead of a thuggish demeanour, you get a pair of scissors, a hammer. Of course there might be innocent reasons for the glue, scissors and hammer, but there are innocent reasons for having sores or looking like a thug.