In the middle of this dimming teapot tempest, a few thoughts....
Doisneau's Kiss, Capa's soldier, Flag raising in Iwo Jima, Gardner's sniper, and many other pictures whose authenticity has been called into question, are visual icons.
While I understand concerns over this, let's not mistake equating literality or fact for human truth. They are not one and the same.
>From antiquity, truth and wisdom have been depicted as feminine, dancing -- and veiled. The longest-running human stories are myths. They have shaped the human psyche and steered the evolution of the mind over time to this day. We have no way of proving if many are historically accurate or true, and know of many that are not. It doesn't matter. Even if they are "fabricated lies", they still point to great human truths, which is why we personally and collectively live by them today, thousands of years later.
If truth is alive, She will not be enslaved into our little mental boxes, be enforced on others, perform on demand or be used to prop dysfunctional egos without peeling veils away, stripping bare and revealing those who appropriate her for what they are. But she will be happy to dance for/with you if you ask respectfully.
In the egyptian book of the dead, there comes a point in the soul's
journey through the (birth) channel to the underworld where it is judged by the Goddess Maat, who places it on a scale, and to go on to the afterlife, all it has to do is outweigh a feather.
A feather. There's a goal for any photographer's soul.....and I think Doisneau got beyond that point, and wonder how many of the rest of us will.
--- Luis
