"I don’t know whether to be more insulted at being called a misogynist or a photographer" Robert Heinecken Today, Howard and Ellen Landau lead a discussion they entitled "#MeToo...is not New"...a discussion on the impact of artist behavior and subject on how the work is received, judged and shown. The subject is vast and we, of course, can;t do it justice in one meeting. With that said, Howard and Ellen gave a great PowerPoint presentation on aspects of the issue. Unfortunately, their PowerPoint was too large to post. Comment below by Howard... "The presentation centered on the @metoo movement and its implications for the way we look at photographers and artists both past and present. Some of the artists discussed included Lewis Carroll, Eadweard Muybridge, Thomas Eakins, Sally Mann, Jock Sturges, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pablo Picasso, Helmut Newton and Chuck Close. The discussion focused less on their art and more about how we view them after we learn about their real or alleged moral indiscretions (in some cases much more than questionable behavior). Ellen shared stories from her days as a professor of Art History and how she dealt with graduate level courses that included images and language that might be offensive to some members of the class. What is considered obscenity and what passes as art has been a matter of debate for decades. Further complicating matters is the question of how museums, libraries, universities and others that own or display controversial art will talk about it in the metoo age. How we individually respond to art and the person who made it is something that each of us has to deal with in our own way. How we answer the question and where we draw the line is likely to be different depending on our response to the art or respect for the artist. " Note: if anybody else has comments on this timely issue in art, please leave your comments Last week we did not meet and instead the "Contrarians" met in Palm Springs and walked the Andreas Canyon. You think we would have been smart enough to put one camera on a tripod (we had three) and capture of Jim Staub in the picture...he obviously was the photog taking the picture.
It was a great day...good weather but the canyon itself was underwhelming to say the least. Below are just some pictures from our group. Maybe next time will be better photographically.
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