I Wish It Were Us

[Haunting – Anberlin]

I think I used this song already, too.

Anyway, it was brought to my attention that the link on the side for my Uni assignment won’t work unless you’re a logged in member of the subject, so I’ve taken it off (or will, after I finish writing this) and from now on I will just copy/paste what I wrote in this blog, and any comments I will copy/paste to that blog and answer them (as well as answering them here).

I know, it’s so confusing! But I think there will be people who want to see what I wrote.

So yesterday, my post was titled “C’mon lawn chair, look pretty for the camera”

So they reckon (well, Sontag reckons) that whoever is doing/making photographic recording of anything, is the person in power. Those doing the surveillance, those taking the photo, those behind the camera etc, they’re the ones in power because they get to decide and influence how an instance is depicted in photography.

Well, I see your Sontag, and I raise you ungrounded and unresearched rebuttal.

Now, I realize that the majority of those that read this are fellow Arts students, so I might be preaching to the already holy here, but how many times have you tried to take a photo of a lawn chair, wanting it to look freaking awesome and deep, only to have it look like a lawn chair?

I want to be good at photography! Admit it, people who can snap a mean picture are sexier – their skinny jeans, messy hair and don’t-give-a-grapefruit about anything demeanor – and I wanted to be one of them! But each picture that I tried to snap of someone turns out a bit drunk and blurry.

I put to you that it is not the PHOTOGRAPHERS who have the upper-hand, but it is the PHOTOGRAPHEES who hold the power to stand still while still looking good and baring their soul to the lens. You can set up the best shot, and then they decide their hair isn’t sitting right, reach up to fix it, and bam their beautiful face is obstructed by a blurry fleshy appendage. Um. The arm.

Take, for another really boring example, Australia’s Funniest Home Video. You can keep that camera rolling for as long as you want, but if your kid doesn’t throw up in your spouse’s face, or your dog doesn’t get her head stuck in the vase, then you don’t get those two cars! I wonder how many of those prize-winning side splitters have been set up and re-done until they’re exactly the right amount of funny?

Alex.

And, once again…

Alex.