Hi Ed,
On my first trip to Prague, the winter after the Russians left, I met up
with some photographers, which was mainly good fun. But a couple were
real old hands, who remembered trying to make photographs with the
Gestapo to deal with, and then the Red Army and KGB. They were wistful
about sneaking bits and pieces under their coats to their secret
studios, where they constructed REAL installations, shot it (on a single
piece of precious film) and took it apart and dispersed it so no one
would be at risk of discovery. They were also bitter over the years lost
to them because of it.
Now most of us will think it silly to connect Sturges with the KGB.
Except we allow ourselves to be persecuted, and refuse to believe we are
in danger of losing freedoms. But we (artists) must defend ourselves,
for our Law won't look after us beyond our ability to invoke the Law for
our defense. In that regard, the comparison to the Prague photographers
and KGB is exact. When 'they' come after one of 'us', we either all
survive together, or we none survive. The sad thing is that the Praguers
were accustomed to think of all artists as a community. But we see
ourselves as 'individuals' and 'iconoclasts' and would rather debate
amongst ourselves than act together. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum vs The
Religous Right. Poor odds, actually.
Don