replying to Juan was Re: CNN's web site today Sunday 14.10.01

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> The photoessay is actually on the Time server
> http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/
> and as now is not yet reachable through the US edition of the CNN
> webpage.  I got to it through the European edition
> http://europe.cnn.com/
>
> The pictures are impacting, but it's hard to tell precisely what pulls
> them together as a presentation. Perhaps an impression of lawlessness
> and that the rules of "normal" society don't apply there?
>
> Underneath all that, and cutting through it, is as you note a truly
> depressing tableau of human misery.
>
> - Juan
> =======

Hi Juan,

Depressing as you say but I would insist that the intended meaning of the
essays is as you say one of a society of lawlessness where the order that
the  American military can bring is sorely needed.  That comes across I
think if we look at one of the companion essays on the same site.  It entitled

"Fighting Back  -Aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise as the carrier's crew
launches a raid on Afghanistan.   Photographs for TIME by Barry Iverson".

These photos show us a world of high tech where everyone is in his place
and knows what job he has to do.  The photos include a "happy warrior" shot
of a Top Gun and also one of the multi-racial crew happily cleaning the
aircraft. There are though two photos in Iverson's essay that stand out for
me.  Photo No 2 is a remarkable shot of five men carrying a laser guided
missile.  The caption says

"The crew loads a laser-guided missile onto an F/A-18 Hornet jet fighter."

The detail given here is almost loving of the promises and possibilities of
the technology.

The photo itself is actually almost formalist.  The thing in itself is a
comment on the patterns made by the elbows of the men and the contrast with
the shape of the missile.  It is in truth a very abstract photograph.  But
in its neglect of the meaning of the missile and the context of the raid
being prepared it reminds me of the elegant paintings done on human skin at
Auschwitz.  The aesthetic here serves only to make us forget the overall
death and destruction hidden by the phrase : "Fighting Back".

The other photo of Iverson's that interests me is number 4 which is a close
up of one of the missiles and the message it bears. The message is

"This is for all the people of NY from the people of Houston TX. God Bless
America."

The caption for this photo reads "Bombs away: September 11th is still on
everyone's minds "

The word 'obscene' is the only one I can think of to makes sense of all this.

warm regards

Gary

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