This isn't really a helpful tidbit but when my new digital camera arrived (more about that in another post) I just plugged it into an open USB port and XP recognized the camera and launched a file wizard that asked me what I wanted to do with these files. Very nice indeed.
Cory Waters took a lot of pictures in the last 24 hours. Almost all of them are crap. So much for that "super-expensive camera makes me a better photographer" theory :) ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 7:52 AM Subject: Re: OT: Politics and Art-was: Leni Reifenstahl: A giant passes away > > It is certainly a powerful record, and I appreciate it as much as > > anybody, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking it's an inser's > > view. If she was an insider then she must take her share of the > > responsibility for events. She claimed she was not an insider. Her > > pictures and movies are not in any way fly-on-the-wall stuff; they are > > all rehearsed and cannot possibly be treated as documentary in any > > modern sense of the word, so I don't see what glimpse we are getting > > of this time. > > > > Where is the insight in her photographs & films? They are extremely > > shallow. She saw only the surface of things. Look at what she has > > influenced: advertisements for Calvin Klein; James Bond films; Annie > > Leibovitz's celebrity portraits. Flashy, exciting, emotive, but > > trivial with no depth. She was ahead of her time. > > > > > But then I've always tended to think that "art" can stand and be judged > > > independent of the artist. Good thing, since many famous painters have > been real > > > assholes in real life. > > > > In my opinion you can gain more from the art by knowing about the > > artist's life. Knowing that Picasso was Spanish certainly adds to the > > power of 'Guernica', for instance. > > > > -- > > Cheers, > > Bob mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Well, I admit I tend not to like Picasso's work because he treated women so > lousily -- he really did. So I can't say I am totally indifferent to an > artist's real life track record. > > Actually, I am not that fond of cubism, but Picasso's extreme sexism has > tended to influence my attitude toward him. For me, his Spanishness is very > secondary. ;-) > > I feel it was an insider's look emotionally, which was the point I made > before. It conveys some of the nationalism and insanity that frankly is almost > impossible to get otherwise. I said this before. I've never understood how a funny > little man like Hitler was able to sway a nation. How Germany (and many, many > Germans, I am not discounting the ones who did not go along with him, but > many, many did) could get swept up into his insanity. From another country, from > later in history, it can be almost incompressible. Until one sees something > like Triumph of the Will. > > Watching it (many long years ago) was the first time I could *see* some of > the charisma Hitler had, and could come close to understanding (not in the head, > in the gut), how it could happen. Watching the pageantry, watching the march, > march of led astray nationalism -- I could begin to see how it was not so > impossible. So *that* is the insider's glimpse. Sure it was all orchestrated, but > that is exactly the point. The same thing, those very same propaganda > approaches, were orchestrated for the German people -- orchestrated exactly to sweep > them up in the fervor. So the inside thing I was referring to is the emotional > insanity that went on. > > In that I think Leni did do her job too well. You can get it by watching the > film. You can get the *thing* they thought they had. The Reich that would last > a thousand years (for was it longer)? She, through her powerful > visualization, through her masterful deliberate propaganda, caught the propaganda going on > at the time, caught the feeling of indomitable spirit that Hitler and those > soldiers thought they had. She caught the "triumph of the will." Now that is > art, that she could capture something so basically nutty and incomprehensible. > And by showing the rest of us the insanity -- the film by its very powerfulness > can explain some of that the insanity as well as it could ever be explained. > As well as it can ever be explained. > > I do not think that is without value. In fact, I think it has a great deal of > value. > > Unless we understand history we are doomed to repeat it. > > I do not think it couldn't happen again, given the right circumstances. Given > the same sort of propaganda, given an insane leader, given nationalism > deliberately led astray -- given deliberate attempts to led it astray. The German > people prior WWII are no different from people anywhere in any country or any > time. > > Oh, well, I've made my points about as well as I can. You either get what I > am saying or not. I remain convinced she captured something valuable, and did > it extremely well. And I am not convinced that any one else, any other film > maker, could have done the same thing nearly as well. > > Marnie aka Doe > > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.522 / Virus Database: 320 - Release Date: 9/29/2003
