Fashionable Torture - "State of Emergency"
Well, here are some images that approach the intersection of torture and pornography from another angle, namely "fashion" photography. The photo-essay "State of Emergency" by Steven Meisel appears in the September '06 issue of Vogue Italia. I suppose these are meant to be commentary on the disasters and excesss of US policy in the aftermath of 9/11 - an anniversary spread, so to speak. But it seems to me that Joanna Bourke gets it just right in The Guardian today. These are misogynistic amalgams of fear and titillation that, if anything, will simply invite a backlash from right wingers for whom torture and abuse are not a problem. The furor will not be about the systematic use of torture as policy, but about how Meisel has represented it.
Labels: Abu Ghraib, Fashion Photography, Sontag, Steve Meisel, torture, Vogue
4 Comments:
I am not sure what to make of these images. Thanks for bringing them to attention. Are they supposed to appeal to women? I could not quite tell - or perhaps I did not want to believe that these images would be an incentive to women to buy items of clothing...naivety perhaps, and likely a little gender stereotypically, they seem to me that they would be more interesting to men - am I missing the point?
I wonder if the Starbucks or faux starbucks product placement here is intentional?
I think you vastly overestimate how much right wingers care about Italian Vogue. There is essentially zero right wing audience here.
Oh come on now Joe! I know that all you guys read Vogue Italia in the supermarket checkout line .... Actually, my suspiscion is that this will work its way into the media somehow and create more of a splash than it is worth ... there are always politicos who are willing to amplify nuttiness for their own purposes. I can hear Rush or Matt Drudge or somebody of that ilk going on about how Vogue Italia recieves funding from the DNC ...
Post a Comment
<< Home