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View Full Version : so, recently, i went to a KKK photography exhibition


na§tee
03-27-2006, 04:45 PM
hmm - that sounds sort of like i went to see a photography exhibition over at my kkk buddies house or something - no!
i went to see a photography exhibition on the kkk in america in the 21st century and their family lives at st. mungo's museum of modern art, glasgow.

the exhibition itself - very impressive.
i would be interested to hear other people's opinions opinions about the photographs: all are online at www.generationkkk.com (http://www.generationkkk.com/gallery.html).
one of the most shocking ones, i find, is this (http://www.generationkkk.com/page_29.html) one - 4 years old, this boy! four years! the one with the girl on the grave is a technically beautiful photograph, too, and the one with the grand wizard type dude buying something from a cashier with a full gown on.
what strikes me most in these pictures is - and i know this sounds silly - the total normalness of these people. no, they don't have two heads and radiation poisoning and horrible genetic deformities. these photographs just conveyed such a communal and everyday existence; hand-stitched gowns, that 4 year old posing in his hood like the first day at school, marriage, hand-crafted community-arts type signs. it's curious. very eye-opening. i highly recommend a look (y)

what was one of the most intriguing things about the exhibition was the comments book, however! gee whizz. i really think they should publish stuff like this that features in particularly sensitive events like this.

it ranged from the people shocked and horrified that something such as this exists so blatantly and alive in our day and age - people asking for the "burning and crucification of them racist bastards!" [hmm, yeah cos that will solve the issue!], to the very thoughtful and intelligent, to the quite short and funny - "i wonder what they talk about at their little picnics?" to calls for peace and yadda yadda to "i live in mississippi and i've never seen anyone dressed in this shit!" to, quite alarmingly frequently, people saying stuff like "YEAH BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE VIOLENCE TO WHITE PEOPLES BY BLACK PEOPLE - MY FRIEND WAS STABBED TO DEATH IN LONDON BY BLACKS BUT WE'LL NEVER GET AN EXHIBITION ON HOW BLACK PEOPLE HATE US, WILL WE?"

i felt like highlighting this entry and explaining that the photojournalist in question set out to document three things:
a. the kkk
b. in the 21st century
c. and how they exist as a family/community
not to be fucking representative of race/racism as a giant entity [although this work is part of a wider one which seeks to ask some additional questions]

anyway. it was interesting.

mickill
03-27-2006, 05:31 PM
Wasn't Hitler named (I know he was nominated as) Time Magazine's Person Of The Century a couple of years ago?

I find imagery like this quite interesting. As disturbing as it may be. Thanks for posting this.

cosmo105
03-27-2006, 05:34 PM
photography's such an amazing medium.

ToucanSpam
03-27-2006, 06:07 PM
Wasn't Hitler named (I know he was nominated as) Time Magazine's Person Of The Century a couple of years ago?



Hitler was Time's 'Man of the Year' in either 1933 or 1936, I cannot remember.

Saddam was also named Time's Man of the Year once as well.

na§tee
03-27-2006, 06:10 PM
mickill: i don't know where "disturbing" becomes "interesting" for me, or vice versa - i just know i find it all very peculiar and exciting. i'm the sort of person who would drive by a car crash slowly just to get a better look. that's why i'm more interested in photojournalism - real life plus "art". beautiful.

cosmo - that it is. see ^. take a look at the pictures here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/in_pictures_50_years_of_photojournalism/html/1.stm) for more photojournalism isht - some spectacular ones there. the five pictures on the right on this page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4231020.stm) are the highlights of the book with more context from the photographers. i have the book and it's provoked more discussions/stares/gasps/awe than any other coffee table isht i've ever seen!

ms.peachy
03-28-2006, 12:38 AM
Hitler was Time's 'Man of the Year' in either 1933 or 1936, I cannot remember.

Saddam was also named Time's Man of the Year once as well.
The criteria for being Man of the Year doesn't include being a 'nice person', remember; only one of significant influence. Positive or negative.

vickista
03-28-2006, 12:45 AM
nice pics(y) they were abstract and unique and made me think about their hidden meanings and stuff.very intriging thnx.

mickill
03-28-2006, 01:56 AM
The criteria for being Man of the Year doesn't include being a 'nice person', remember; only one of significant influence. Positive or negative.
Yeah, a lot of people have a hard time getting their heads around this. The person can suck and still be recognized for their influence. How else would you explain George W. becoming Time's Person Of The Year in '04?

zorra_chiflada
03-28-2006, 01:57 AM
this one makes me feel ill

http://www.generationkkk.com/page_21.html

Tzar
03-28-2006, 05:47 AM
that's just fucked.. ^^

sad thing is the kid LOOKS as if he has no idea what that's all about.

Freebasser
03-28-2006, 06:49 AM
The one with the four year old boy sitting at the table while his parents adjust his hood made me want to throw bricks at my computer.

enree erzweglle
03-28-2006, 07:07 AM
The criteria for being Man of the Year doesn't include being a 'nice person', remember; only one of significant influence. Positive or negative.Right--Ayatollah Khomeini was Time's Man of the Year in 1979 and Hitler was nominated for Person of the Century.

enree erzweglle
03-28-2006, 07:20 AM
The scary thing is knowing and then seeing that the KKK is still alive and well.

When I did relief work this past October, I was warned about the...uh...makeup of one county in particular that we had to work. We were told to report when we went into that place and then when we were out again. Although the locals wouldn't say so outright, they hinted hard about it when we asked them directly--a look and a chuckle conveys a lot--and they hemmed and hawed about what happens in those places and then they half-warned us about proper behavior and then again, that look.

So sad. This too: people who made donations who then protested and took back their items when they saw that they were being used by black children/families. :eek: :(

na§tee
03-28-2006, 02:10 PM
enree - how upsetting! how awful that they would take back their donations. sheesh.

i knew people like this still, of course, existed - but it still shocked me nonetheless.