PROOF, Blind, and The ongoing moment

i decided to fix the lame accidental post i did before and make it an actual post.

In class on monday, we went over a few select texts, which Professor Colby read to us, each of them addressed certain issues which were on my mind while i was watching Proof...

John Banville- The Sea
Which is more real?
- the memories or the remains of the actual?
- what remains after death? “dust of the death”
- how does this author contextualize photographs

W.G. Sebald- Austerlitz
“shadows of reality…as memories”

Thomas Burnhard- Extinction (1995)
Different take on photographs
- “…basically I detest photographs”
- photographers have nothing but to portray themselves
- vulgar addiction, enamored of such perversion
- “inhumane art”
- do not display genuine people or scenery
- “truth and reality behind the distortion”

And now for...
PROOF
Australian film by Jocelyn Moorhouse
I noticed that distinct focus is placed on the sounds of Martin (blind man’s) house at the beginning of the movie.
The first photo is taken in vets office against a backdrop of other photos...suggesting... what?
Martin describes photographs as being “what people see through their eyes”…”the truth”
Takes dark glasses off when listening to the orchestra concert. (he can see them with his ears?)
Celia takes glasses off when she has sex.
He is not wearing glasses when he walks in to his house to find Andy and Celia having sex.
Last scene, he has long white fingers like his mother.

So what do i take from it all? well... I suppose the film is based around the dichotomy formed between memories from sight, and photography. There is also definitely a question of truth in the story. For example, who is telling the truth in the story? the audience is unaware. It could be andy, celia, or martins mysterious mother. Did his mother truly love him? Why was she lying to him, or was she lying? These questions are left up to the reader to figure out. Just like the photos themselves which Martin captures, the viewer gets to determine what the "truth" actually is. This movie left me feeling that "truth" especially as it relates to memory and sight is very subjective. hmmm.

Today in class.... tuesday May 18th... we talked about the difference between:
Subject matter: Formal qualities, what is in the picture?
Subject: what the picture is about

Then i went home and did the reading titled Ongoing Moment, which was specifically about the "Blind" picture which we had viewed and discussed in class. I thought it was cute that Strand attached a fake lens to his camera, like he was trying to be all sneaky with this huge ass camera in front of his face. Its actually pretty clever. I also enjoyed the references to other photographers as if their work was a conversation instead of solitary works. Furthermore, i am interested in the several links to poetry which were brought up... were the photographers aware of these poems and responding to them, or were the lines which seemed to coincide with not just one, but multiple works, just a coincidence?

k, bye!