Response to On The Rights of Molotov Man
As a creator, I think it's important to consider how our work leave an impact in the world, how it affects the people experiencing it, what message it's sending by the way it's presented. One thing struck me the most in the article was this sentence from Susan Meiselas, "Joy's practice of decontextualizing an image as a painter is precisely the opposite of my own hope as a photographer to contextualize an image." Two different artists working with different mediums with different techniques and different purposes (I'm assuming there was a purpose for them), the only thing in common was the subject, at least, visually speaking.
It wasn't until this image of Molotov man has been massively re-produced, re-created, or re-contextualized all over the place, did these artists began to question who owns the right of this image, and who's appropriating whom. Whenever I see a National Geographic Photograph of someone, somewhere in the world, experiencing a historical event, my first question is always - do they know? Do they know their image, their pain, their joy, their fear, their anger have been broadcasted to the world through the lens of a Western media? The viewers would make up a backstory from the photograph they see, and all they can see is within the frame, a frame that the photographer decided to put focus on. Even though these photograph's descriptions try to be as objective as possible, they are still presented in one perspective, curated into a publication.
Can documentary photographers actually contextualize photos by their subject in an authentic way? I don't know. But I'm glad Susan Meidelas never did sue Joy Garnett in the end.
I don't think, however, we should shy away from creating anything that draws inspiration from others, whether that be a subject themselves, or someone's interpretation of a subject. We should think about, especially when working with technology, how the digitalization of artwork impacts the world differently, and what it means to the history.