Bad Camera

[john m flores]

Nothing wrong with starting a serious discussion. We have so few here at SC, and generally the moment we begin to disagree about anything, that seems to be seen as dangerous, and the thread dies.

I do find it curious that painters can create the most horrific and disturbing images (Goya, perhaps, or more recently Bacon) yet they are not dismissed as having "crossed the line"...

Healthy discussion is good.

I think the issue is what line is crossed. Goya and Bacon did paint horrific images, but it is a different line I think. I'm not fully aware of their body of work though, so there may be pieces in the same vein as the photos being discussed.

What we have here is the unwilling and unwitting sexualization of female subjects, some of dubious age. It is one thing to do so with an adult and with consent, I think of Modigliani with his subject and adult models of our age. Questionable behavior perhaps, but it is another thing altogether to do so without consent.

Yes, others have crossed this line in the past, Egon Schiele and Roman Polansky spring to mind, but that doesn't make it acceptable. Sure, the camera is really cool, but it still doesn't make it acceptable. Sure, the results are haunting, but it still doesn't make it acceptable.

Tichy is obviously quite talented. I only wish he had applied those talents in a different way.

My $.02. My line.

 

[kyteflyer]

If we had been told that Tichy was a famous academic artist whose photographs were posed with paid models, the response might be quite different.

Not necessarily. A Sydney photographer did a series of photographs with a 12 yr old (consenting, paid and posed) ... the exhibition was shut down, and the photographer arrested.

 

[kyteflyer]

FWIW and from the photographs (I didnt read the text...anywhere) I could not say the guy was mad - maybe just a sleaze (who of the people he photographed actually believed he was taking a shot, with those cameras?)... or at best, OCD. I also have some degree of expertise in the area of Mental Health, having worked in the field from 1975 to 2010... But maybe the DSM-V would categorise him. After all, theres now a classification for Internet Gaming Disorder.

 

[drd1135]

For what it's worth: I did some internet research about Tichy. I tried to look at BBC, NY Times, etc., and not just MyBlog.com, but every article I looked at referred to his mental illness. I'm just reporting what I saw; no mention of how this was diagnosed. His work was very well regarded in every article I read. My favorite comments alluded to the idea that many of his subjects, as did most of his village, thought the camera was fake. My favorite interpretation of his work is a subversive parody of the surveillance policies of the Warsaw Pact countries.

Still reading . . .

 

[stratokaster]

Some things to bear in mind when discussing Tichy's work...

1) Much of his work was produced in times when privacy standards were really different to modern. For example, in the USSR you could go to the beach with a camera and nobody would object to your presence. In modern Russia and other post-Soviet countries it's not recommended.

2) The article states that he often was shooting at the local swimming pool. I'm sorry, but if you're undressing at the pool, you can't have any reasonable expectation of privacy. None whatsoever, in fact.

3) Most of those people are not recognizable because of technical quality of his images. And probably most of them were not even aware that their pictures were being taken. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

 

[Luke]

I agree with startokaster's points. By and large, the images are nothing I couldn;t have shot had I been there at the same time....and it's in public. The only question is ....."Is it art?"

Meh....random screengrabs in pre-screengrab days. He was constantly shooting with his homemade cameras. If you take enough well composed photos of women undressing.....you're bound to get a few good ones.

 

[donlaw]

I never heard of this guy before. The images are compelling. He sounds like an eccentric sneak. Maybe different times, not to many homemade digital cams being made today...
Interesting discussion from the serious compacters.

 

[drd1135]

I never heard of this guy before. The images are compelling. He sounds like an eccentric sneak. Maybe different times, not to many homemade digital cams being made today...
Interesting discussion from the serious compacters.

Here you go: The Photojojo Store!

Results may vary.

Edit: Oops, you said homemade digital. Maybe we could upgrade the TLR by using the guts from an old compact. Hmmm. . .

 

[drd1135]

If you take enough well composed photos of women undressing.....you're bound to get a few good ones.

All other considerations aside, this is a line worthy of the "Philosophy of Photography " subforum.

 

[Covey22]

They say that artistry is a form of divine madness. Certainly that's what his photos invoked when I saw them. Again, not a definitive or authoritative comment on his mental state.

As a techno-geek, I'm fascinated and amazed by the ability to get anything resembling a decent photograph (technically - i.e., in focus, exposed, etc) from the gadgets that claim to be his cameras.

But the photos themselves - well - no, there's nothing there for me. In fact, it seems to represent (at a cultural level) a side-effect of the oppressive Iron-Curtain regime under which he spent most of his life.

 

[Archiver]

Can I be the first to say, "Hobo with a Camera"???