The imagery from the earthquake in Haiti 2010 a very haunting but also very human.  These images lack the cold detachment of most photojournalism I have seen.  After seeing him talk about this series I ca understand why.  While photojournalists create stunning and often very human photographs to me they always feel slightly detached, no matter how many guns are fired or explosions are going off around them, there is an invisible wall between artist and subject that seems to come through.

The images of Haiti are different, they are quite, introspective the world is not attached Haiti is not  thousands of miles away, it is the ghetto in  Los Angeles or Oceanside.  He transforms a documentary work into a peace completely personal and at the same time worldly.  It speaks to me of bringing the tragedy into our personal lives.  Some how he connected with these people.  I think he truly lost his defensive armor in this series.

All Images on this page copyright Patrick Farrell Please visit his site and explore his work.

Graciela Iturbide is for e an inspiring photographer in her exploration of the world.  She describes photography as a away to explore the world, life and ones self.  Which is truly a away i feel photography to be.  Not only is her work exceptional examples of black and white imagery she refuses to be trapped into a single vein of photography.  In many ways I find myself the same way, I started as a portrait photographer but wanted to create more, more meaningful work and i guess in many ways explore my own, world life and feelings.

Her work explores her feelings of the world.  Or her feelings of the place she is in.  It seems to be in some ways political but with out making a direct statement.  Much of the work seems to be deeply personal but with out being so locked in on her that the viewer has no way of extracting his own meaning from the work.

In the Arts 21 Video she says she shoots very quickly, and in the scenes she is shooting I see that, a very interesting point because all the advice you get in the world is to slow down.  However in some ways I also found that this is how it works for her, she quickly composes and does not think to much of influences on the image.  Like the part where she states that she was not going to make abstracts from the bark of trees because she felt that it was too influenced by her mentor, and then quickly changed her mind because of the beautiful light on the tree bark.

Rabbit-proof fence is another awful story of colonization by europeans.  I am really not sure I understand why white europeans feel the need to be so awful towards brown natives of the land the inhabited prior to them arriving.  Did they really think they were bringing salvation to these people or was that the lie they told themselves in order to feel better about the abuse the put on these people that lived relatively peaceful lives prior to the arrival of white europeans.

Seriously how can you make one man the warden of an entire peoples.  A single person is the guardian of all these people as if he is their parent.   I think most of the people had parents or were parents.  The roamed the hunted they gathered and played all in the Australian wilderness.

I believe that white europeans had the mistaken belief that because those that lived in the wilderness that did not not where appropriate clothes in their eyes that they were “savage.”  They had not realized yet that the advances made in Europe began out of necessity for survival of the whole.  The built large communities in order to cooperatively farm and raise the young, in a land that was less fertile than those of Australia or america.  The were packed closer together so they had to create extensive laws in order to keep the peace.  And they made weapons to protect themselves from the relatively close neighbors that disagreed with them.  The natives of many of these lands had no need for this, land was fertile plenty of game roamed the land as well.

What also impressed me in this though is the desire to return to what they had known and lived in prior to the invasion, and attempt to incorporate them into white society.  The girls risked life limb and health to return to their families.  This reminded me of the first nations boy we heard about earlier in this course that ran away several times when he was brought to Indian Schools, running home to southern California from as far away as New Mexico.

This film illustrates something that truly bothers me about American society.  That false belief that allowing boys to dance would automatically mean they are gay, or turn them gay.  I really do not understand this thought process, in reality if you are so concerned about you male child being gay, wouldn’t you want him to be constantly around a bunch of beautiful young women, doing something that is going to make him in peak physical condition.

Why do not we want boys to dance.  I actually have first hand experience with this a friend of mines husband does not allow one of their male children to dance though the child obviously prefers that to the sports her is enrolled in, why because it is not masculine like football.  I am not saying that all boys need to dance or they all should be put in dancing lessons but if they want to why not.  Why does every idea of male be centered around competition, violence or winning.  Where does this idea come from? And you are gonna tell me there is not gay football players or boxers or whatever is this weeks pick of straight male.

It was not that long ago that even in this country men were taught the basics of ball room dance it was part of polite society, were all men gay at that time? In some countries with a strong history of dance Russia springs to mind it is considered to be entirely masculine to dance.  I think we need to re think our culture a little, America does little to encourage dance in the minds of our young people, even after a certain point many young woman stop dancing.  Actually better yet America needs to start promoting the arts in general visual, dance, theatre, music these things are all part of culture and if we allow them to die off then what culture do we have? The screen in our living rooms is truly becoming the screen to our demise.

After viewing this movie I am left to contemplate a contemporary problem in preserving cultural identity and cultural practices.  Often I feel people are cling very hard to set rules in regards to the role of male and female of their cultures rather than embrace a new way of doing things, much like in the Bird Songs video viewed in class, when they would state that one man was not native american enough to participate, or another was of the wrong tribe, and another one had not yet earned the right to sing.

In Whale Rider Paikea, shows sincere interest in preserving her family and cultures beliefs and heritage.  She goes out of her way to spend time with her grandfather, to learn the traditions and to learn the ways.  Yet she is still shunned during the male coming of age ceremonies.  Then is ostracized when her uncle teaches her.  She showed far more interest and care at preserving the Maori culture than many of the other characters in the film, and yet she still was pushed away by a formally loving grand father.

I find it odd that cultures that are on the edge of obliteration from the world.  The songs the art and traditions about to be left to museums, pick and chose which children they want to teach too.  At some point should they not begin to embrace the ones that are ready and willing to learn.  I realize that my culture is not in peril of being lossed middle class american white people are all over the goddamn place but it seems to me if i wanted to preserve something i would worry more about those cultural things that are handed down from generation to generation to not be lost.  If a you person was interested in what we have passed down I would share no matter what gender, age o orientation, or wrong clan.

I guess the point I am trying to make is it not true that culture is somewhat fluid, ebbing and flowing with changing times? Can we not look at our own American culture and realize this?  Example in the last 10 years, we elected a Black American to office (moving away from the old white man trope), we have moved toward socialized health care, and completely legalized marrige for all humans with in our country.  Several states have legalized the once much maligned marijuana for recreational use (I assume enough children of the 70’s are now in office and want to continue to smoke weed and not have to pull a Bill Clinton).  What I am saying here is american culture has changed, mostly for the better I believe, can other cultures that are so endangered of being lost not  do the same?

One thing that I feel was a glaring neglect in the movie is the leaving out of the traditional tattoos that the Maori wore.  These tattoos are a large part of their culture and are still in practice today.  I am surprised this was not featured at all in a movie that at its heart was about preserving culture.  I actually feel that is a neglectful in the making of the movie.  Maybe some of the older people that were alive during British rule may not have had them, but I truly think the younger people would have worn them.

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Below are some examples of Maori Tattoos, please feel free to browse, these were taken from a google image search and are not my personal work.