I thought this comment was most interesting when addressing the cultural enviroment in Germany now a days years and years after world war 2 and diary of anne frank. Putting yourself in the shoes of the people that film and photography have taught us to hate and look at as villians. Picturing as just another person.
I found this idea interesting because when you don't look at it in such straight rigid terms. Black and White, good and evil, victims and villians, even feminine and masculine....you are forced to think more about the things we have in common. How we are closer alike really than we are not. And it isn't just the way things are, but the way we are taught. There are more things in common in the human experience than we see what it is moving all around us. And she has put it on pause for us.
Her photography was centeralized around teenage boys. Capturing the thoughts, motivations, and experiences that these boys obtain while growing into men. What makes them mascculine? this question was asked and left to the viewer to answer for them selves when looking at the photographic work.
The thing I found myself asking, while listening to all the fascinating thoughts she was articulating was, would I be able to have any of these thoughts on my own? Would the photos suggest these ideas to me if I had never heard her speak? I think not. Is the reason I would not have thought that way by looking at these photos because society and culture has already imposed some other ideas in my mind? Is it a product of me knowing too little and not having enough culture? Or perhaps it is something much more simple than all of that. Perhaps things in my own life experiences cause me to think diffently.
Of all the work we have looked at together in class, I can say this is the first time I looked at it ans said, "Wow, you know, I really didn't get it. I really missed what the artist was try ing to communicate here."
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