Exercise: Seeing is Believing:
Read the WeAreOCA blog post ‘Seeing is Believing’: http://www.weareoca.com/photography/seeing-is-believing/
Read all the replies to it then write your own comment, both on the blog page and in your own blog. Make sure that you visit all the links on the blog post. Base your opinion on solid arguments and, if you can, refer to other contributions to the blog. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:82).
The post raises the question whether seeing is believing. This is done in the context of the assassination of Bin Laden and the challenges to it because of the lack of visual evidence at the time. Not all of the links work now, however it directs us to the work of Joan Fontcuberta “Deconstructing Osama” made prior to the event, where he distorts photographic truth as he photoshops himself into a disguised Bin Laden. In his work generally Joan Fontcuberta fuses fact and fiction, pushing viewers to doubt their own perceptions in a bid to dispel the myth that ‘the eyes do not deceive’; he challenges us to examine how images are made, exhibited and seen, and how their ‘truth valueʼ may be exploited (Bainbridge, 2014).
The work of photographer Pedro Meyer and his book Truth and Fictions is mentioned in the blog. Meyer a pioneer of digital contemporary photography, maintains that “all photographs – manipulated or not – are equally true and untrue” (Pedro Meyer,2020). Interestingly he also argues that unseen elements such as memory or emotion present themselves with a physical reality equal to visible objects. In his photographs, these elements often appear with a clarify that connects his work to the tradition of “Magical Realism”.
So what are my thoughts about the blog post and posts which date from 2011 and are now 9 years long?
The vehicle raised in the blog for discussion about whether seeing is believing was the refusal to release images of Bin Laden’s body, are met in various ways. Obama stated that he thought that it was morally wrong to display such a graphic image, and yet other bodies were shown; so was the decision really to prevent him being martyred by his followers or to prevent a larger retaliation? It is also strange that the photograph of Obama Clinton and advisors witnessing the assassination from their situation room was thought morally right. The reactions to this were varied at the time and those contained in this blog. Some accepted the event happened without visual evidence, whilst it caused some to question the reality.
Discussions in the blog are interesting and wide ranging:
Can we believe without visual clues? (nmonckton, 6.5.11).
Objectivity is always open to question (Richard, 8.3.15)
You don’t need to see to believe (Philoca, 6.2.16)
There is no longer blind faith in photographs (Michele, 24.2.19)
For my part I don’t need to see to believe, especially in this instance as I don’t believe the American government would have risked putting out false information that could later be disputed. In some things I might need to see to believe – it depends on the likelihood of something having occurred and the integrity of the source providing the information.
I am interested in Ian Shaw’s comment (5.11.20) asking has the belief in the truth of a photograph as a document changed since 2011? It probably has, and the photograph is less useful as a document of evidence than it used to be, now there is a shared understanding of how post processing and construction can be done.
For me the central question that I come away with is how should we best document reality?
References:
Bainbridge, S. (2014) Mind Games. At: https://www.bjp-online.com/2014/11/joan-fontcuberta-national-media-museum-bradford/ (Accessed 27/10/2020).
O’Hagan, S. (2011) ‘Osama bin Laden’s body: the world’s most incendiary image’ In: The Guardian 06/05/2011 At: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/may/06/osama-bin-laden-photograph-obama-body (Accessed 27/10/2020).
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Pedro Meyer: Truth from Fiction (2020) At: https://luag.lehigh.edu/exhibitions/pedro-meyer-truth-fiction (Accessed 27/10/2020).
Seeing is Believing (2011) At: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/seeing-is-believing/ (Accessed 27/10/2020).
Photography 2: Documentary 