Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras. It is common now for people to insist upon their experience of a violent event in which they were caught up — a plane crash, a shoot-out, a terrorist bombing — that "it seemed like a movie." This is said, other descriptions seeming insufficient, in order to explain how real it was. - (Sontag, 1977, p161)

I agree with Sontag's statement that Hollywood has is a bench mark in visual culture that one likening everything to and that of course comes with many problems, like, who makes the rules for this popular visual icons and the make up of this pop culture is steered but the the male gaze. It may seem like a far reaching link but although my project isn’t really directly exploring or questioning themes of the gaze I feel it is strongly connect to it in that the members of the punk rock community the songs that are written the ethos and drive interlaced through the personalities and subject matter is VERY conscious of the gaze and careful when looking at representing others. The slower portraits of people involved are in themselves attempting to convey the sensitive nature of these people and there philosophy. 

I being a member of that community and playing in and listening to bands myself am surrounded by these ideas that are questioning the way we live our lives and a disconnect that seems to be growning. 

I’m hoping to explore strategies in which I can bring in these elements from the community along with my personal life to create something personal meaningful ambiguous to others coming in. I refer back to my initial spark on this when learning of Jeff Walls way of thinking on reportage photography and  the photographers role as an image maker. In short, objectivity is almost impossible and that by interacting with people to archive an image doesn’t make it fake.

At what moment in history did the discursive desire  to photograph emerge and begin to manifest itself insistently? At what moment did photography shift from an occasional, isolated, individual fantasy to a demonstrably widespread, social imperative ( Batchen, 1997)

On the note of the ‘tidal wave’ of images that we are bombarded with on with mass media the punk rock community’s genral feelings on it are quite thoughtful and sensitive. Hear are some words from songs that talk about that very issue. I guess that the two main themes I hear in songs are a ( hearing gaze?) are songs about mass consumerism and also mass marketing and the abundance of images with the negative effect they have on everyone. 

Bangers

Church Street In Ruins

Hearing the Beach Boys playing on this rainy high-street makes me chuckle at the amount of surf shops here. I've tried, there's just no waves in this town. Just more coffee shops that we could ever hope to drink in and I don't care how cheap their drinks are, I'm better off at home. I kind of find it offensive that everything's for sale, coupled with the realisation that there's nothing here I need. It's strange, I don't hate my job and I'm not living on the breadline, but spending money still seems strange to me. On the plus side when I'm outside I repeat mantra-like "The last thing I need is any more things”.

Geeks and Paedophiles

My computer broke down again and I'm sure there's too much money to be made for it to be something simple, and it's such a fucking waste of my time. And how convenient, the warranty went out of date a month ago. The professionals say "What do you expect mate? You should have paid for our protection." And I hate that we can tell an Apple owner by their dress code, cause products have always bred fashion and the fashionable. The kind of people who'd say "Advertising's the only real art form these days" when an actual human being would say "That shit just gets in my way." So thanks a lot Bill. You really got me this time.

I have a personal connection to Church St in ruins. I remember being in Daegu South Korea feeling pretty low with depression and I remember taking this image and looking at it on the computer feeling pretty isolated. When Roo talks about Church St I remembered I sued to run down it every day whilst on my Ba final major project. I used to run past the same shops and think the same thing, ‘ the last thing we need is anymore things.  As my project was looking at consumerism linked with the punk rock scene. I looked at the image that I just taken and realised that there were lots of signs in Korea I couldn’t understand but I could kind of guess what they were by the colour and shape and if not from the shop would be a good indication of what it sold. 

It got me thinking I need food or a drink I’ll go around and find a shop but all of the text being used was lost on me. It just amplified how much it were told what to think with marketers intentions. 

Back from nostalgia to today. I wanted to play with using lyrics from songs as captions with the work.

INSERT PICS WITH LURIC CAPTIONS