Artist Statement:
Editorial imagery that becomes iconic does so initially when a photograph powerfully captures the essence of a broader narrative, summing up an entire event in a single frame. Ironically, the more powerful the photo, the more it becomes, over time, detached from that narrative. The event it summarized is replaced in the collective memory by the image itself. This is unfortunate because the past offers many messages and questions about the present and future.
Consider the famous photo of the lone Chinese protestor staring down 3 tanks in Tiananmen Square Massacre, 1989. But the symbol of the power of the people over their government was a fleeting one. Not long after it was shot, the military slaughtered hundreds of student protestors, and order was restored.
Cut to Cairo, 2011. The army is brought in to quell an uprising. Except they don’t act, and a 30-year dictatorship is ended. Yet the ensuing democracy is barely out of the womb when the new president gives himself unchecked powers, and his party unilaterally writes a new constitution. Riots follow. The army returns. Chaos abounds.
What does it mean when we see stability in autocracy and chaos in democracy. How do we weigh order against freedom?
These are the kinds of questions my work asks.
In order to do so, I have to first force people out of the trance state they enter into when they see an image for the millionth time. Seeing the same image over and over becomes the visual equivalent of white noise. That trance state is what causes people to recall the image but not the event. I re-imagine the picture, keeping just enough of the original for it to be familiar, but presenting it in a way it’s never been seen before. The objective is to compel the viewer to rethink the image, and consider its meaning above its content.
And here’s one more thing to consider: in a world of mass media, social media, and 24/7 news programs, can any one image ever again capture the horror and the entirety of a tragic cultural narrative with the power of the ones that inspired my work in the first place?
James A. Drosnes
January 2, 2013