Posted by
Pradip Malde
Falling Man.
Taken by Richard Drew at 9:41:15 a.m., on September 11, 2001
Three friends have now recommended Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Jack, Amy, Bjorn, your joint pointer carries a lot of weight and it is the next book I read. Palimpsest has some interesting discussion about the book.
While feeling my way through the information cloud around Foer and this book, I came across another fascinating book: Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth. Anyone else read it?
Posted by
Pradip Malde
floating. lightly.1990. platinum-palladium print, 8×10in
This photograph was made as a part of the “Memory, Balance, Love” series from 1990. I go back to it, thinking of those who have gone, and those who are about to arrive. (for Karen, who I have never met, and for a child who I am about to meet.) Yes, it’s Memorial Day weekend, not Shopping Weekend! In a political environment where US presidential candidates toss patriotic dust at themselves in order to look bigger, brighter and butch, would it not be refreshing if we all just hunkered down for the weekend and meditated on war, life, loss and tragedy? Stay at home! Don’t drive and shop!
Posted by
Pradip Malde
Errol Morris’ (The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara) blog entry about his latest film, Standard Operating Procedure, focuses on one particular and central concern: Sabrina Harman’s smile, and the way we read the ‘cheesy’ smile. This is a rich piece of writing about photography, occlusion and truth.
“There are many photographs of al-Jamadi’s body, but it is the photograph of Harman with his body that stands out among them, the photograph of a pretty American girl who is alive and a battered Iraqi man who is dead. The photograph misdirects us. We become angry at Harman, rather than angry at the killer.
We see al-Jamadi’s body, but we don’t see the act that turned him from a human being into a corpse. We don’t understand what the photograph means, nor what it is about. ” - Morris
Read the blog entry.
