Its kind of funny that now there is so much imagery on the internet the only thing I could think of that would make people look at my first time post on this blog is a nude body, bet it worked though, I guess you looked… I remember driving down Macquarie Street in Sydney once with two of my great friends and seeing this naked guy walking along the street… It was funny and sad at the same time, it was funny because as we watched this guy negotiating the crowds with absolutely not a stitch on that no-one apparently was looking at him at all. No-one even seemed to notice. Was it because no-one wanted to openly acknowledge that there was this naked guy walking along a crowded city street because they were too shocked or scared or was it because that they were ashamed and embarrassed to be seen looking at a naked body? The sad part was that he obviously had had some sort of episode and had left the hospital up the street without his clothing. I worked that out when I noticed a couple of people in doctors smocks walking some way behind him in pursuit.
Either way you look at it, whether the guy had a mental illness or even if he was just pushing the boundaries it seems that he still had the capacity to be ignored. Even though at least a few hundred people saw him no-one reacted. That was amazing to me.
So while there are at least thirty billion blogs out there dealing with everything from family life to bomb building I still don’t think that the plethora of information that is available to us via the internet has done anything to really draw attention to the issues that often get swept under the carpet because it becomes too hard for people to address them.
Well this is the point of ‘Out of the Shadows’ its a forum for me and anyone else who would like to join in to discuss the things that don’t get talked about, things that are important to us personally or as a species. I hope it will become an enlightened and amusing space to hang out in and as I will be posting all my random photos that don’t seem to ever have a home for themselves anymore at least a little bit stimulating as well.
I hope this new journey I am about to undertake will be rewarding for everybody concerned and that by reading and participating in it will may be able to find answers for some of the questions we need to ask…
Interesting idea for a blog and good 1st entry to it…..looking forward to more…
This should be a good ride!
Hey thanks folks! Appreciate any kind of interest at this point! I hope that I will be able to bring some stuff to the table that might get us all motivated to be the best we can be! i look forward to some lively debate…
Interesting idea. A couple of months ago I uploaded (to Flickr) a shot of a man wearing only sandles, riding a bicycle along a street in Barcelona. I liked the shot because I had also managed to capture the reaction of a couple of pedestrians. UBut soon, the shot began to attract interest amongst Flickrites whose photostreams seemed dedicated to pictures of naked men. To me this only illustrates that the meaning of an image owes as much to the imagination of the viewer as it does to that of the author. Good luck with your site 🙂
XPAT
Thats what is the point of interest to me here… to try and break through the literal interpretation of photography and journalism and investigate a more fundamental truth… if thats possible…
People are completely motivated by their own desires, hence you get directed to naked men photos on Flickr because thats what those other people that have seen your shot are interested in…not perhaps for the question it may have asked… nudity is a beacon for people believing that to be naked is somehow something to do with sex and therefore should not be acknowledged. Even if its as out of place as someone riding a bike around in the buff or walking on a city street, people squirm…
Think about the huge debate in Australia about Bill Henson’s photo’s of naked 12 year olds. The out cry was huge because the commentators from every walk of life, politics, police and the general public could not get past a naked adolescent as being rather beautiful rather than sexual.
‘These children should be protected’ they cried… but from what? Several of them, now adults had posed for Henson as adolescents and could find no ill affects to their current situations.
All those people claiming Henson’s work was ‘hideous’ weren’t using their imaginations, which one would ague good art should engage, they were working off a basic urge which leads people into muddy waters when it comes to viewing nudity in any form. Henson’s work was banned and vilified here which to me has much to do with the general lack of imagination as much as peoples own ability to decide.
Hence this site… its a antidote to ‘Reality Shows’…
Thanks for your comment
Oh, I couldn’t agree with you more. The Henson case was a clear illustration of a knee-jerk reaction to form betraying a total lack of understanding of content, or even the lack of desire to understand content. Perhaps this more recent case would interest you too. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/hospital-charity-rejects-exhibition-over-boy-photo-20110104-19f37.html
I cannot help but be mystified by the paradox of a society that condones and even promotes child beauty pageants and yet convulses in horror when a mother takes a picture of her son with his chest bare.
I look forward to seeing where your site takes you.
XPAT Yep I saw that one and choked on my chupa-chup… this is bureaucracy gone completely mad. My god what would they have thought of my cousins birthing photos? They were quite artistic but would they have protected the rights of the being born child?