Hauntology of Photography - The Digital Revolution Essay

Hauntology of Photography - The Digital Revolution - Essay Example He argued that it freed the west from the obsession with realism, hence allow it to regain it aesthetic autonomy. In his claim, he cited Cà ©zanne and Picasso as good examples of painters who started their career in early days of photography and started modernizing the art with its literal means of depicting the world. Bazin had previously suggested that painting was torn by two ambitions. One ambition was expressing spiritual reality where the symbol transcended its model, while the other one duplicates the outside world. Photography removed the burden of the second task from painting, though it was not better at showing the world as it was. Best oil paintings precise depictions were superior to the blurred black and white photographs of that time. In addition, he argued that the painting image shares by virtue of the process of its becoming. On the other hand, photography is a mechanical process which man plays no part. Consequently, we forced to accept that as real the existence of object reproduced (Azoulay, 2002, P 202). Through analogy, Bazin gave reference to the Turin shroud, where certain people believed it is the actual sheet in which the body of Christ was laid in the tomb, and the blood stain that dried on the sheet and outlined a human face figure on the cloth, gave a depiction of the physiognomy of Christ. Although scientific tests results showed it does not date back to the Christ time if it were what it purports to be. It would help in showing why for believers would have shared in Christ’s sacredness. In addition, the reasons its image would be contemplated with high devotion than any painting or Jesus. The reality would have been transferred to the shroud of Christ. He also argued it the plastic arts were to be done analysis; the preservation of the dead by embalming might turn out to be a fundamental factor in their creation.  Ã‚  

Textual Commentary on Black Souls in White Skins in I Write What I Literature review

Textual Commentary on Black Souls in White Skins in I Write What I Like by Steve Biko - Literature review Example Biko’s philosophical message corresponds with black theology as it was heavily themed with encouraging Blacks to depend on themselves rather than White liberals to successfully fight apartheid.3 In this regard, liberalism in the context of apartheid, South Africa refers to advocates for freedom from coercion, discrimination and oppression and equal access to political, social, educational, health and economic opportunities.4 Kee argues that Black Consciousness’s philosophy was founded on Black theology which proposes that God will not solve our problems.5 Biko’s Black Souls in White Skins embodies the concept of self-help as captured by the Black Consciousness Movement and black theology which is a Christian expression and rejection of oppression as experienced by Blacks.6 From Biko’s perspective, White liberalism could not capture this experience and in attempting to do so, White liberals perpetuated the notion that Whites were superior to Blacks and coul d speak for and on behalf of Blacks.7 Initially President of the South Africa Student Organization (SASO) the movement that organized the Black Consciousness Movement, Biko subsequently became SASO’s Publications’ chairman. The SASO organized programmes which involved training and studies in a number of subjects such as economics, theology, poetry, aesthetics, culture and politics. The programmes resulted in publications which included Biko’s column, I Write What I Like published under Frank Talk and appeared in SASO’s Newsletter in 1970.8 Black Souls in White Skins was Biko’s first article in his column I Write What I Like.9 Black Souls is a parody of French writer Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks. Where Fanon challenged the utility and authenticity of Blacks identifying with Whites, Biko challenged the utility and authenticity of Whites identifying with Blacks.10 As was characteristic of the Black Consciousness Movement, Biko’s Black Souls targeted the motives of the White liberals whom he called â€Å"people who say that they have black souls wrapped up in white skins.†11 Biko questioned the authenticity of their claim that they sympathized with the â€Å"black struggles† against apartheid.12 In challenging this claim, Biko immediately draws attention to fact that it is questionable whether or not White liberals can speak as an authority for Blacks and what bothers him even more is that Black people have enabled White liberals by actually believing them â€Å"for so long†.13 Biko’s Black Souls reads as a rejection of White liberal â€Å"patronage† in that Biko took exception to the idea that Whites could pass judgement on who qualified as worthy Blacks and what could be good for worthy Blacks. Biko observed that the White liberals lead a campaign that was entirely artificial in nature in that it merely forecasted a convenient type of integration that favoured White supr emacy under apartheid. According to Biko, the White liberals’ efforts were marked by artificial integration which White organizations dominated and ended up with â€Å"Whites doing all the talking and the blacks listening.†14 Biko’s Black Souls therefore adopts Black theological thinking in that he expresses the view that Blacks are also complicit in their oppression and that it is a sin to sit back and accept the situations on the premise that Blacks are innocent victims of apartheid. Black theology takes the position