Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Feral Exoticism of Photojournalism

Is it unreasonable to conceive of an image-consuming public responding with similar detached aesthetic appreciation to a photo-journalistic style deriving not only from the "anomic" street-photo tradition but also from the feral exoticism of fashion photography? Even the most committed photographer, such as Meiselas, is so far hostage to the interests of editors and publishers and their products, which in the main have little to do with "truth" but which willingly merchandise a nihilistic fascination with death, death, and more death, to help us steer a course between intolerable personal anxiety and its alternative numbness.

Martha Rosler, Decoys and Disruptions, p. 258.

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