(Notes on) Politics, Theory & Photography

Best Shots (96) ~ Nick Hedges

2009-12-02T21:35:00.003-05:00

(123) Nick Hedges ~ Jazz band playing in a Handsworth pub, 1966.
(2 December 2009).

Just in Time for Holiday Giving: New Tom Waits

2009-12-02T00:08:00.008-05:00

. . . and this is not the first time I've said that. Seems suspiciously like a pattern. But who can resist the temptation to share those dulcet tones with loved ones? Not me. This is a live one, with songs recorded on Waits's recent tour. And it is a lot of fun.

Sophie Jodoin

2009-12-01T19:29:00.005-05:00

From The Ward (2008-2009 War Series) © Sophie Jodoin.

I came across a link to the website of Canadian artist Sophie Jodoin while I was passing though 3 Quarks Daily. (Thanks!) She describes the 89 drawings that make up The Ward like this: "Small meditative drawings on the silent wounded voices of war. Inspired by Goya's capriccios." Of the larger War Series she says: "Inspired in part by contemporary war imagery, graffiti, and comic-style silhouettes this latest series of tiny collages and drawings call into question the numbness with which viewers are habituated to observing the carnage of war and domestic violence."

The Woods Fracas

2009-12-01T16:25:00.003-05:00

There is a nice column on Tiger Woods here at The Nation. I have a difficult time with celebrities who enrich themselves via vast PR machines, but who cry "privacy!" when they are unable to control the media. On the other hand I generally could not give a rats ass (technical term) about most of the celebs. The piece in The Nation doesn't exactly accuse Woods of anything directly. But he sure does seem tone deaf when it comes to ethics and politics. And, of course, that doesn't even raise the issue of golf as a dead weight loss to the environment.

News Flash! ~ Republicans Promote Profligate Spending and Rampant Redistribution

2009-11-30T18:34:00.004-05:00

"During the 1990s, the Republican Party promised to create a federal government that was small, inexpensive, and efficient. Their stated plan was that the national debt would be reduced, and ‘unfair’ income redistribution would be curtailed. Yet Republican control of the legislative and executive branches of government during the last two decades has had the opposite effect. Government has grown; the national debt has expanded; and redistribution has increased. Moreover, the ‘unfair’ redistribution Republicans decried—and still decry—turns out to run strongly in their own constituents’ favor."

That is the punch-line of this paper - "The Truth about Redistribution: Republicans Receive, Democrats Disburse," by Gary Richardson - that arrived today from The Economist's Voice.

Richardson shows that without exception - meaning in each and every one of the fifty states - comparing those states that vote Republican to those that vote Democratic, the former take in more (sometimes considerably more) in federal expenditures than their citizens pay in taxes. Mostly, according to Richardson, this reflects Republican control of the Congressional appropriations process. Is any one surprised?

The Real Recession

2009-11-29T17:55:00.000-05:00

Greg and Sheila Dawson. Photograph © Stephen Crowley/The New York Times.

In The New York Times today is a nice trio of features on the explosion in the use of food stamps across the country. The explosion is among 'middle' and 'working' class people who never thought they would need to rely on public aid to feed themselves and their families - that is, until they are confronted with under-employment or lose their jobs altogether. There is a story, a photo essay, and an interactive map showing county-level statistics. I find interesting two virtually identical comments by men interviewed for the story:

"I always thought it was people trying to milk the system. But we just felt like we really needed the help right now." ~ Greg Dawson

"I always thought people on public assistance were lazy, but it helps me to know I can feed my kids.'' ~ Tyrone Mangold

These remarks brought to mind observations by economist John Roemer that I mentioned here last summer. Roemer speculates that the common experience of material insecurity induced by political economic crisis, because it distributes risk more equally, can lead people to support more solidaristic political-economic policies (say, universal health care or, in this instance, food stamps) because they come to understand that it is in their self interest to do so. Maybe so.

That said, the seemingly pervasive claims that the "recession" has bottomed out and that we are on the road to recovery seem hollow in light of these stories. And imagine if we had no "safety net," however thread bare and meager are those programs that have survived two-plus decades of right wing attack!

The Tolerent and Peaceful Swiss (2)

2009-11-29T17:44:00.003-05:00

And so the Swiss indeed have voted to insert a ban on Minarets into their constitution. There is a report on the referendum here at The New York Times. This is a follow up on an earlier post.
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[Photograph © Associated Press.]

There is an Interview with Rebecca Solnit ....

2009-11-28T22:42:00.003-05:00

. . . here at The Believer. I know it may seem as though I link to pretty much everything she writes or says. That is because I think she is as smart and interesting as anyone writing about politics and culture these days. So, here is a link to a recent review she wrote for the London Review of Books as well!

Mark Nowak ~ Coal Mountain Elementary

2009-11-28T14:26:00.006-05:00

Poet Mark Nowak and collaborator, photographer Ian Teh, have assembled a pretty remarkable book called Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009). Notice the verb. The book was not exactly written by Nowak. All the text consists of more or less alternating passages from three sources: (1) testimony provided by miners who survived the 2006 Sago, West Virginia explosion (in which a dozen miners died) and from members of the rescue teams that struggled to save them - the testimony was given to the state Office of Miner's Health & Safety; (2) a curriculum for schoolchildren developed by the American Coal Foundation; and (3) press reports of the death and mayhem created by numerous mid-decade mining disasters in China. Interspersed with the text are a couple of dozen uncaptioned photographs - half by Nowak, half by Teh - of the area surrounding Sago and various mines in China. This is an extremely creative endeavor to prompt readers to think about commonalities and complicities and connections relying, powerfully, on the irony of lessons designed for elementary school pupils to do so.

The Tolerant and Peaceful Swiss

2009-11-27T10:51:00.009-05:00

According to this report from AP, Sunday there will be a referendum in Switzerland on whether or not to ban Minarets throughout the country. The political right (which is quite robust in the country) is pushing the 'vote yes' campaign on grounds that the Minaret is a symbol of power, that Islam is not simply a religion but a political/legal/cultural system at odds with the Swiss constitution. The posters capture the alleged menace.

Best Shots (95) ~ Mary Ellen Mark

2009-11-26T09:45:00.003-05:00

(122) Mary Ellen Mark - Shyama, Ahmedabad, India
(26 November 2009).

Mobilization for Climate Justice (2)

2009-11-25T19:25:00.003-05:00

Ten days ago I mentioned the upcoming - next Monday, November 30th - mobilization for climate justice. You can find a reminder here from Rebecca Solnit about the mobilization and the reasons for it. Here are some of the good bits:

"There are endless questions and conundrums about the largely unforeseen situation in which we now find ourselves, all six billion of us. One of them is: if capitalism and communism both failed, what’s the alternative? The big tent of subversions and traditions called the left hasn’t, in recent times, done a very good job of providing pictures of the possibilities available to us. Still, perhaps the answer to what the political and social alternatives might be will prove very close to what a sustainable world in the face of climate change might look like: small, local, smart, flexible economies and technologies, democracy as direct as possible, an elimination of excess wealth as part of a leveling that might also eliminate dire poverty.
Some of our hope for the future has to be that, one day, the ecological and the economic can be aligned so that, among other things, petroleum and coal become increasingly expensive, as well as increasingly offensive, ways to run our machines. Will we be creative enough to embrace change before crashing systems and wild weather force change on us in the form of an unbearable crisis? Decisions about the nature of that change to come must be made by the citizenry, which seems to be fairly willing to face change when it gets its facts straight, rather than by wealthier nation-states and their leaders who seem, at this juncture, more interested in protecting business than life on Earth."

Passings: Charis Wilson (1914~2009)

2009-11-25T19:07:00.006-05:00

Nude in the Doorway (Charis, Santa Monica), 1936.
Photograph © Edward Weston.

According to this report from AP, Charis Wilson, the model who posed for many of Edward Weston's famous nudes has died.
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Update: (29 November) There is an obituary here in The New York Times.

Deutsche Börse 2010 ~ Fashion Statement

2009-11-24T10:12:00.003-05:00

For a while now, The Guardian has had up this slide show presenting some work by the four finalists for the Deutsche Börse prize. In his accompanying column Sean O'Hagan proclaims:

"Photography, like art, pop and literature before it, is now awash with prizes. . . . If the health of a medium corresponds to the number of gongs, contemporary photography would seem to be in fine fettle. It is, of course, not that simple. Prizes are not just a barometer of excellence, but of changing taste and, perhaps more importantly, curatorial values."

Let's not be naive. This is true enough but too polite by at least half. Professions form themselves - usually under the heavy hand of a select few discourse shapers - by institutionalizing venues and establishing the media of self-congratulation. In photography think only of the way John Szarkowski helped establish Walker Evans as the benchmark. In social science think of the way economists accrue capital via the Nobel Prize. In each instance the processes at work are deeply political and so, none-too-pretty. So, in the description just nipped from The Guardian what seems missing is that prizes do not so much reflect changing tastes as contribute to the process. The curators and other bestowers of honors are trying to create fashion (and dollar value) by promoting work that embodies their own preferences. By situating themselves as creators of fashion, as promoters of this or that hot artist, the curators can bask in the buzz and maybe score some new "major" show. Does any of that really need saying?

In any case, the four Deutsche Börse finalists this year are Anna Fox, Zoe Leonard, Donovan Wylie, and Sophie Ristelhueber. And a quick look at the short lists for the past half-decade, by the way, suggests that O'Hagan's claim about the emergence of "conceptual" work is strained, at best. Robert Adams won the prize in 2005. Esko Männikkö was picked in 2008 from a largely traditionalist short list. And last year the list was similarly recognizable. O'Hagan must've been working a tight deadline. Otherwise he might've looked for himself.

So Long Bill!

2009-11-22T00:09:00.000-05:00

According to this report over at The New York Times, Bill Moyers has decided to retire from the weekly grind at PBS. The same report indicates that PBS has cancelled the NOW series. That means that two relatively honest TV shows are gone as of the spring. According to The Times report: "PBS said in a statement that it was in the middle of a “review and reinvention” of its news and public affairs programming, and that it would announce plans for its lineup in January." My money is on the prospect that PBS will 'reinvent' the insipid. Any takers?

Hardball

2009-11-21T18:07:00.003-05:00

Lyndon B. Johnson, as Senate majority leader in 1957, giving Theodore
F. Green, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “the
treatment.” Photograph © George Tames/The New York Times.

Like him and his policies or not, LBJ knew how to gather the votes he needed. And that is something the contemporary Democrats - especially including Obama - seem to have forgotten how to do. This picture from the paper today depicts classic legislative politics.

Enthusiasms (28) ~ JD Allen Trio

2009-11-21T00:03:00.002-05:00

Saxophonist JD Allen has put out a pair of really terrific recordings over the past couple of years. His partners in crime are Gregg August (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). You can hear the trio on this broadcast from the Village Vanguard (via npr) late last summer. The tunes are subtle and concise, the arrangements sparse, and the musicians are interactive. This is not a conventional soloist with supporting rhythm section undertaking. Allen has received a lot of press for his most recent release Shine! which indeed is very, very good. But for my money his earlier cd I Am, I Am is close to being a real masterpiece.* Not only is the music impressive, but the cover got me wondering. Where had I seen this I AM before?

Sanitation Workers Strike, Memphis, 1968 ~ Photograph © Ernest Withers.

March 29, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee: National guardsmen
brandishing bayonets block civil rights activists trying to stage
a protest on Beale Street. The marching demonstrators,
wearing signs which read 'I Am A Man', were also flanked
by tanks. Photograph © Bettman/Corbis.

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* Both cds are on Sunnyside records.

Art & Politics Don't Mix?

2009-11-20T11:17:00.003-05:00

I hear it again and again, mostly from the mouths of those art world types eager to keep the thoroughly commercial dimension of their enterprise out of sight. They announce with great ardor that art and politics are like oil and water, or that political art is uniformly inferior to the allegedly unadulterated product. But if art is a way to communicate, what it communicates, and what we (artists and audiences) are communicating about or for is variable. So writing politics out of the conversation - a blatant intellectual and cultural gerrymander - seems, well, a bit daft. The relations between art and politics are going to alter with time and space. That does not mean that there is no relation, but that the relation is inconstant. In the hoopla surrounding the twentieth anniversary of the fall of communism there have been a series of press reports about events (rightly) celebrating the role of ~ gasp! ~ artists in that process. One does not have to look far afield; look here and here for instance.

Rules & Utopia

2009-11-20T09:47:00.007-05:00

Stanford economist Paul Romer has an interesting, very provocative idea. He lays it out in this TED talk. One of the things that I think he misses - largely because he is an economist, and so likely thinks rules emerge from nice processes for nice (read efficient) ends - is that institutional rules typically are the product of conflict and struggle, typically (again) between parties that are asymmetrically situated with respect to such minor things like power and material resources. This is perhaps not insurmountable. But he is way too sanguine, I think, when he raises and dismisses the spectre of colonialism. Choice is important. True enough. But in the face of a system of rules that may need reforming or re-adjusting, choice is not only not enough. It may well be counter-productive. What is needed is coordination. What is required, in other words, is politics. And most leaders are - just based on casual observation - loath to make space for coordinated opposition and criticism. Perhaps Romer has thoughts on this that would've cluttered a short presentation. I hope so. (Thanks to Cui Zhiyuan for calling my attention to this link.)

Best Shots (94) ~ Sara Ramo

2009-11-19T08:16:00.003-05:00

(121) Sara Ramo ~ Invasion of Everything That Was Restrained (Detail)
(19 November 2009).

Against the Tide of Trick and Trap - Markets Require Transparency and Accountability or They Don't Work.

2009-11-17T21:04:00.007-05:00

I recommend this video of an interview with the remarkably articulate and sensible Elizabeth Warren (she is chair of Congress's the bailout oversight board*) in which she explains how to make financial markets work well. Two words - transparency & accountability. At the moment we have precious little of either. And, as she intimates, the two are related. If we have transparency in financial products (say credit cards) then market forces will drive those who offer duplicitous products out of business. But, as she also makes clear, a criterion for federal bailout funds should be (and should have been last year!) that those in charge at the failing financial institutions should lose their jobs and the shareholders in such firms should lose their capital. Ouch! But that is how markets are supposed to work, no? Someone ought to have brought that to the attention of the BushCo officials who were busy insuring that there would be no market discipline on Wall Street. To be fair, the Obama group has not done much better. In any case, the interview is about 19 minutes long, but it is worth watching. The interviewer is James Surowiecki from The New Yorker. (You can find the essay in which Warren first proposed a Consumer Product Safety Commission here. As she says - 'if its good enough for microwaves, its good enough for mortgages.' Regulation-induced transparency, that is.)

For a somewhat different view of the need for reform of financial regulations, here is a short paper by Dick Posner from The Economist's Voice. Posner is correct that Bernanke he is correct too insofar as he thinks that this places the fox in charge of the chicken coop. But imagine what the financial markets would do if Obama came in and cleared the decks and replaced the culpable with someone like Elizabeth Warren! Posner is too quick to blame the government agencies charged with oversight of financial markets for failing to head off the market disaster of the past several years. He is, I think, insufficiently attuned to the extent to which the Federal Reserve, for instance, sees itself as accountable to financial markets. Market players have no incentive whatsoever to be concerned with systemic stability - it is, after all, a public good. This is a point Warren makes nicely. The financial entrepreneurs will devise and sell pretty much any type of flim-flam product they think they can get away with selling. And in the financial markets of late, the move has been to peddle products that systematically occlude the view of buyers, sellers, insurers and regulators - think credit default swaps, securitized mortgages, and so forth - that are meant to undermine transparency. These are products that are, like cigarettes, dangerous when used properly. They are dangerous to the institutional structure of well-functioning markets. And, unfortunately, the only entity with any reason to monitor the performance of that structure is - you guessed it, the government. Unfortunately, though, the foxes remain in charge.
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* Officially known as the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The 'Hidden' Cost of Health Insurance Reform? Or, Is this What Obama Actually Thinks?

2009-11-17T09:05:00.006-05:00

The Obama administration is delivering a lame legislative reform of medical insurance 'reform.' It largely is unconcerned with improved access or cost control. But it is delivering purveyors of repressive policies to posts in the Justice Department! Here is is a New York Times profile of Stephanie Rose the nominee for U.S. Attorney in Iowa who is being pushed by the state's Democratic Senator. Obama is solidly behind the nomination - according to the report - in order to keep Harkin in the insurance reform coalition. But it is likely the case that our hoper-in-chief also thinks Ms. Rose is just ducky in policy terms. Where is the progressive party in the U.S.?

Our Generals & Afghanistan

2009-11-16T09:33:00.005-05:00

So, who are we to believe? Our generals are disagreeing about whether to send more troops into Afghanistan. The mission is a loser. No doubt about that, though our generals seem oblivious to Afghan history and our own. The generals - General Stanley McChrystal (commander of U.S. troops) wants troops, a lot of them, now. Otherwise we will lose the battle and the war. Karl W. Eikenberry (Retired general moved into the Ambassador's post) thinks it is a very, very, very bad idea to send troops now given the mess that passes for a government in Kabul. That the mess is our doing doesn't get mentioned, really. And what also gets neglected is that Eikenberry is not against sending more troops in principle, he is simply bargaining with the Afghan regime, trying to get them to shape up. Right. Like Kentridge's general, ours seem to be seeing with one eye at a time.

In the interest of expanding the conversation some, I thought I'd call to your attention another point of view. Late last week NPR ran this short segment, interviewing two Afghan women — Fatima Gailani, president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society; and Suraya Pakzad, founder and executive director of the Voice of Women Organization — and asked them for their advice on how the U.S. ought to proceed. Their views are complex, meaning that it seems unlikely the factors they think are important will be mitigated by a massive influx of troops. But simply talking to fundamentalists is problematic as well. How did we make this mess?

Yes Men Sound Off

2009-11-15T10:48:00.007-05:00

"It's not a radical thing; it's not a super-radical position--to
take to the streets and demand change. It's actually a
necessary component of democracy."

At The Nation you can find this short interview with Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos who tag-team as The Yes Men ~ just in time for the release of The Yes Men Fix the World.

Mobilization for Climate Justice

2009-11-14T15:15:00.003-05:00

Mobilization for Climate Justice is coordinating a set of nationwide protests and other political actions on November 30th. As they indicate on their web page: "N30 is significant because it both immediately precedes the upcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) and is the ten-year anniversary of the successful shut down of the WTO in Seattle, when activists worldwide came together to demonstrate the power of collective action."