Talking About Photography 2

Iconography

Images reside inside of us only to resurface occasionally.

A sampling of faces that belong to our own experience, for the most part “western”  children, young people, and adults.

We have seen more breast-feeding madonnas than actual mothers, and many a blonde-bearded Jesus.

The most beautiful representations of religious iconography rest in silence.

Every time a photographer, often in a war zone, reproduces the usual suffering --the scorn of injustice, of mothers and fathers that weep for a martyred son--- the repetition of events  make mourning similar, over centuries, to statues of stone.

- These pictures remind me of an American musical, "1776," which details the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of the Revolutionary war. One song titled "Mama, Look Sharp," is sung by a young soldier who is dying in a field crying out to his mother. This was brought to mind from these pictures because it details the mourning of a mother over a child that she was never meant to bury. The part that most reminds me of this grief is,
Young Soldier:

"Momma come find me before I do die
Hey, hey, Momma look sharp"
Mother:
"I'll close your eyes, my Billy,
them eyes that cannot see.
And I'll bury you, my Billy
Beneath the maple tree
And never again will you whisper to me,
'Hey, hey, Momma look sharp.'"

(Margot Rittenhouse)

Finale 

Oh God, I'm bleeding

Oh God, you're bleeding
Oh God, I'm dying
Oh God, you're dying
Oh God, I'm dead
Oh God, you're dead
Long live God, long live God
(Federica Nuzzolese)