a constant conscious reworking of the terms under which we unconsciously look at the objects that people our visual landscape
This reminds me of what was talked about in lecture about being aware that our experiences shape how we are going to consume media. What makes me curious is how to ensure that the creator is able to get their point across without it being diffused by others perceptions?
circulat- ed widely
I am drawing a connection to the reading from Seyhan which describes that images do not circulate themselves
Such scenes of torture made manifest the unquestioned authority of a monarch over his subjects, the physical power of the State as personified by one ruler. The mugshot corresponds to a later formation of power which emerged in the nineteenth century, the state of surveillance, in which power is increasingly diffused, disembodied, and located in the minds of subjects who discipline themselves according to an institutionalized image of normalcy.
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Du Bois's photographs highlight the disturbing resemblance that links the middle-class photographic portrait to the criminal mugshot, and the mid- dle-class citizen to the criminal body.
I find it interesting that this exhibit challenged the white middle-class ideal that Black communities were criminals and also that criminals can be found within their own white middle-class communities.
The pho- tographs begin to disrupt the authority of white observers by collapsing the distance between viewers and objects under view that is held traditionally to empower observers
This reminds me of Seyhan's text where it is mentioned that the photos are taking place in city streets not far from the ordinary life of the public
13 Du Bois's ini- tial portraits portray expressionless subjects photographed from the shoul- ders up, both head on and in right- angle profile, repeating with uncanny precision the full-face and profile head- shots of the prison record
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artist Cindy Sherman has repro- duced iconic images from Hollywood films in order to show how meaning can be manipulated by repeating images within different interpretive frames
To me, I am reminded of how this challenges "double vision"
Du Bois knew that examples of African American economic success circulated under white eyes waiting to proclaim-"usurper," "liar," "thief."
I see this connect to Tina Vasquez's reading since the photos were being used to disrupt the white gaze but it was still, in a way, created to be consumed by white middle-class Americans.
Du Bois notes "a double standard of justice in the courts," "enforcing a caste system in such a way as to humiliate Negroes and kill their self-respect," and foster "peonage and debt-slavery" (56-57). Notes on Negro Crime, Particularly in Georgia, demonstrates how discourses of innate "negro criminality" directed public attention away from the material cir- cumstances of extreme poverty and racism under which many "free" African Americans struggled to sur- vive by sharecropping in the post- Reconstruction South.
At the end of the reading from Seyhan, it is noted that imaged "can" be used in such a way to address inequality. Seyhan gives an example of the Black Lives Matters movement. Here it seems to be a parallel use of images. What is interesting is that the images are quite different.