Re: [Leica] Personal portfolios of misery

[Krechtz@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/30/00 12:30:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time, palio@miata.net 
writes:

<< I do have strong views on this, but they come from having worked
 intensively for thirty years with patients who have been very depressed
 and have cut themselves regularly. My teenage sons have friends who have
 cut themselves, have attempted suicide, and have succeeded. One girl at
 their school hanged herself last year. A boy at another school shot
 himself in the head. There is barely a school or family anywhere without
 some exposure to this. >>

    Is it possible that earlier cries for help from these suicide victims 
went unheeded?  Is it likely that Kyle's prior photos of "Goth Girls" in 
slinky dresses failed utterly to convey the real message behind the "Goth" 
culture?  
    Perhaps it should have occurred to us before seeing these latest images 
that the wearing of nothing but black, the pervasive practice of such 
self-mutilation as extensive body piercing and tattooing, the fascination 
with instruments of torture and with the macabre in general might be 
indications of emotional or psychological malaise.
Maybe Kyle has friends who have suffered or even died by their own hands.  
Maybe his subject does as well.  Maybe they are attempting to tell a story 
together, in an effort to draw attention to the truth behind the facade.  
Perhaps Kyle would prefer not to tell us so in words, as he so far has in 
fact not done.  Perhaps his silence is his way of urging us to work a little 
harder to get the message.  If we do, then his photographic mission succeeds. 
 If not, it is a meaningless technical exercise.  
    On the other hand, maybe we are being manipulated.  Maybe Kyle's 
assignment will be evaluated on the basis of how many viewers are convinced 
by the work, or whether any of us get the message.  Maybe his career needs a 
boost, and he invented the story about Mary Ellen Mark altogether.  Maybe we 
are just a focus group of some kind, and Kyle did the shoot for an ad agency 
working for a commercial enterprise or, worse yet, a political campaign.
    I am attempting to echo and enlarge upon some of the themes already 
present in this thread, just to demonstrate where these ideas can logically 
lead.  Actually, I think it is time that we hear from Kyle...

Joe Sobel