Notions of censorship and truth
The indexical qualities of photography in rendering truth
Photographic manipulation and the documentation of truth
Censorship in advertising
Censorship in art and photography
Ansel Adams
You can change the effect of a photograph by the techniques used in the dark room , they can convey a completely different meaning.
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Ansel
Adams, Moonrise
Hernandes
New Mexico, 1941 - 2
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Ansel
Adams, Moon
over Half Dome,
1960
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Ansel
Adams, Aspens
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Photography has been manipulated since its beginnings to portray a certain half truth, from people like the government.
‘Five years before coming to power in the 1917 October revolution, the Soviets established
the newspaper Pravda.
For more than seven Decades,until the fall of Communism, Pravda,
which Ironically means “truth”, served the Soviet Communist party by censoring and
filtering the news presented to Russian and Eastern Europeans’
Aronson,
E. and Pratkanis, A., 1992, Age
of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of
Persuasion, New York, Henry Holt & Co.,
pages 269 - 270
Kate Winslet on the cover of GQ with elongated legs created on photoshop
manipulation to sell
Robert
Capa, Death
of a Loyalist Soldier,
1936
The start of photo manipulation and changing the truth
‘At that time [World War II], I
fervently believed just about everything I
was exposed to in
school and in the media. For example, I knew that all Germans were evil and
that all
Japanese were sneaky and
treacherous, while all white Americans were clean-cut,
honest,
fair-minded, and trusting’
Elliot Aronson in Pratkanis and Aronson, (1992), Age
of Propaganda, p. xii
Jean Baudillard
Simulacrum
the reflection of a basic reality
masks perverts a basic reality
masks the abscence of a basic reality
bears no relation to reality whatever it its own simulacrum
Peter Turnley,
The
Unseen Gulf War, December 2002, at
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html
They where not allowed to show certain images, it was censored, the truth was masked.
The "Mile of Death".
During the night of the 25th of February and the day of the 26th of
February,
1991, Allied aircraft strafed and bombed a stretch of the Jahra
Highway. A large
convoy of Iraqis were trying to make a haste retreat back to
Baghdad, as the Allied Forces
retook Kuwait City. Many Iraqis were killed on
this highway. Estimates vary on the precise
number of Iraqis killed during the
Gulf War. Very few images of Iraqi dead have been
previously published
Things where shown that where not shown in the popular media which makes it out like war
is okay, it desensitises the details.
‘Most
of the reporting that reached American audience and the west in general
emanated
from the Pentagon, hence severely lacking balance, as proven by the
total blackout on the
magnitude of the devastation and death on the Iraqi side.
A quick statement of the number
of dead (centered
around 100,000 thousands soldiers and 15,000 civilians) sufficed for
main-
stream media audience. It is no wonder that this made-for-TV war started
at 6:30pm EST on
January 16, 1991, coinciding with National News. Alas, much of
American audience today
cannot distinguish between computer war games and real
war, between news and
entertainment’.
http://www.radioislam.org/historia/zionism/index_iraq.html
Censorship
The practice of policy of censoring films, letters or publications
Censor
Morals
Ethics
… as the picture does not in fact depict fellatio, but something else, what the dispute comes
down to is whether everyone, a substantial number of people, a few obsessed individuals,
or one particular person, understand it this way. Without an opinion poll, the dispute is
unresolvable, but it is really quite improbable that such an interpretation will be individual’
Cook, G. (1992), The
Discourse of Advertising,
London, Routledge, page 51
Oliverio Toscani , United Colours of Benetton, 1992
themes of questioning racism, the view on aids e.c.t
Benetton (UK) Ltd: The ASA deemed
this 1991 poster to be a poor reflection on the advertising industry and
ordered the advertisers not to repeat the approach.
Sophie Dahl, Opium advert, 2000
The orientation of the image deemed whether it was acceptable or not.
Amy Adler - The Folly of Defining 'Serious' ArtThe orientation of the image deemed whether it was acceptable or not.
"an irreconcilable between legal rules and artistic practice"
who decides this ?
The Miller Test
asks three questions to determine whether work should be labelled as obscene
whether the 'average' person applying contemporary community standards would find that the work taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest
whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct
whether the work, taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value
Obscenity Law
to protect art whilst prohibiting rubbish
the dividing line between speech and non speech
the dividing line between prison and freedom
Sally Mann, 1984-92
photographs her own family
is it damaging to the children
images are quite controversial
Tierney Gearon
2000's
controversial images of children
media
Nan Goldin , 1998
How much should we believe in the media ?
Should we be protected from it ?
Who should be protected ?
Should art sit out censorship law ?
