paper idea

March 6, 2015 | 5 Comments

A couple of years ago, in a museum bookstore, I picked up a book called “Without Sanctuary.” It was published in 2000 and was a series of photographs of lynchings across the United States in the early 20th century.

I was absolutely repelled and wondered why anyone would publish this book. But I couldn’t forget it. I’ve researched it and learned that people in the academic community and in the general public are divided—they either acclaim its publication or decry it.

My paper addresses visual culture–particularly photography and documentary filmmaking — and its relationship to oversharing.

I want to look at this relationship through certain works and artists. As well as “Without Sanctuary,” they are “Night Will Fall” , “Finding Vivian Maier,” and the work of Annie Leibovitz.

“Night Will Fall” is a highly graphic look at the German Death camps. The film footage, shot by Alfred Hitchcock, was suppressed after WW II and was just released last year. “Finding Vivian Maier,” is a film documenting the life and work of a very private photographer who never published her photographs during her life and was “discovered” and made a “celebrity” after her death. Annie Leibovitz, is a photographer who specializes in revealing celebrity portraits. Leibovitz is known for the iconic photograph of John Lennon in fetal position wrapped around the body of Yoko Ono.

In the first three instances, the content was either suppressed, revealed information without the subject knowing about it, or met with public outcry. In all of them someone thought circulating the imagery would be too much information—for reasons ranging from political, to taste , to privacy. In the case of Annie Leibovitz, there are dissonant worlds. In one, she breaks borders, in the other she remains closeted: Leibovitz kept her relationship with Susan Sontag private, to the point that she only referred to the two of them as friends throughout their twenty year romantic partnership.

This is only a starting point. I am eager to dig in and see what I can find.


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Patricia Wadsley on March 6, 2015 7:46 pm

    Incase, I did not identify myself, the above idea is from -Patricia

  2. John Paul Varacalli on March 7, 2015 11:09 pm

    I think I asked a question in class about the relationship between violence and oversharing. I remember that the violent act needs to be talked about. I also think I remember hearing that the more graphic the violent act is, the more likely it is to be oversharing.

    However, there needs to be a connection between the talk/gossip of the person who overshares and some type of audience (regardless over whether it is self-revelation(s) or 3rd person gossip). Unless your aforementioned authors fit under the domain of some type/category of oversharing (e.g. violence as oversharing), it may make more sense to focus on one individual or social movement and see how he/it overshared. I also see that you are pitching ideas about photographs and ‘visual culture.’ However, it is easy to extrapolate and make false deductions of photograph(s) you see. Each person in class needs to do a 20-25 page paper of some sort, so it may make more sense to pick a topic on which the most information is available. Perhaps, for instance, you can do a paper about the relationship between Susan Sontag and Annie Leibovitz and see how people responded to it.

    P.S. I think it is also easier to do a paper about individuals than social movements. I remember hearing that oversharing has more to do with individual than societies.

  3. Kathy Cacace on March 8, 2015 9:45 am

    Hi Patricia! I love (love, LOVE!) photography, so I’m very excited that someone in the class is doing a project where we’ll get to explore this subject.

    I had just two connected threads I’ve recently come across related to your ideas that could be of interest.

    First, there was just recently a big new batch of research about lynchings in the south published by the Equal Justice Initiative. For me, it helped illuminate how massively history has underestimated the effect, that lingers to this day, of lynching as a widespread terror campaign. And this despite a powerful visual history, like you mentioned! This was on NPR and pretty widely covered so you probably have already run into it, but here’s the link just in case: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/02/10/385263536/new-report-examines-lynchings-and-their-legacy-in-the-united-states

    Second, with regard to Annie Leibovitz, I instantly remembered that she ran headfirst into quite a controversy when she published pictures of a topless (but covered) Miley Cyrus, then age 15. I’m wondering if there might not be a thread there to pick up about exposure, age, sexuality…something like that? Here’s a link:
    http://www.complex.com/style/2014/04/annie-leibovitz-talks-shooting-miley-cyrus-for-vanity-fair

    I’m not sure if either of those would help, but again, I’m so excited to get to talk about this topic!

    –Kathy

  4. Patricia Wadsley on March 8, 2015 4:25 pm

    Ooh Kathy,

    Those are both great. Thanks for the ledes.

    Pat

  5. Carrie Hintz on March 9, 2015 1:13 pm

    I think this is a terrific topic and I can only encourage it. Right now you are still at the “exploratory” phase so you may find that your topic shifts quite a bit as you gather material. I would encourage working on all three texts at once, but you may find that one ends up coming more into focus. “Finding Vivian Maier,” for example, could be its own project, maybe. I liked John Paul’s idea to focus on Sontag/ Leibovitz’s relationship–and I share your excitement re. Kathy’s suggestions.

    One way to proceed: write two or three sentences about interests you the most personally, and work from there…

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