Re: Traveling Portfolio

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From: Janet Neuhauser (jneuhauser@silverlink.net)
Date: 09/25/01-11:26:12 AM Z


To All,

I thank Judy for her as always astute comments about what it is like being on the
front lines. I am even farther from NYC than Dave Rose--I live in a bucolic
setting in western Washington an hour by ferry from Seattle. But I have family
and friends in New York many directly involved, though thankfully none injured.
My nephew is a NYC firefighter, on the front lines, a 24 year old who is willing
to risk his life for a career and city that he loves. (Ironically, it is always
the young men in our society who are so dedicated).

My point though and I will try to be brief, is that we now live in a time of
fear. The day of the disaster I was working on a one person show of my work
which goes on the wall today. (If you are in the area, it is at Kittridge Gallery
at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. Not alt processes, except that they are
silver gelatin prints tone with Liam Lawless' sepia/gold toner receipe in I
believe, PF#3). But I felt that day that I wanted to cancel the show, that a
part of me that made art had been killed along with the souls of the 6000. What
was important to me changed. I don't know how this will affect my work in the
future. I do know though that art, both the making of it and appreciation of it
by society is more important now than at any other time in our history. On that
note, none of the discussions on this list about what is happening to our world
is off topic as far as I am concerned. A very urgent topic to the list as
artists (and perhaps more importantly as photographers) is our role in recovery.
As a fairly apolitical person, I now feel the need to be involved, to hear from
those who are there and suffering the most, and to keep a clear head about what
will happen next.

In some sense, America with all its follies has survived 200+ years because we
have had a more open forum of free speech than other parts of the world. This
may seem simplistic and it is, but now more than any other time, we need the
Judy's of the world, who are not afraid to speak from the heart. I know that
Judy was/is deeply affected by what has happened. But thank God, she has the
courage to speak her mind. I want terrorism to be wiped out, I want those (fill
in the blank) people responsible to be destroyed but I pray and hope that we can
somehow use this disaster as a way to strengthen freedom in the world, not
destroy any more innocence people and yes to be critical of our "leaders" who it
seems likely, will use this disaster to curtail many of our rights. We all have a
responsibility and yes a right to say what we think without the additonal fear of
being personally attacked for our beliefs. And I will thank Mr. Rose for
speaking his mind without personal, vicious attacks on another list member---none
of us need this type of communication ever again.

Perhaps we can use the list, not to just exchange techniques, but as a place to
address issues of being artists, of the place of the artist as a political entity
and how all of this has affected us as artists and photographers. I welcome your
thoughts because, though I know life must go on, I need to deal with what is
happening now. The fear I was talking about above is not just of terrorist acts,
but of our own inability to see clearly, act thoughtfully and use this time in
history to actually make changes that will unite us as a planet and not just a
country. It is not God Bless America that I want to hear, but God Bless the
Earth.

Janet Neuhauser

I wasn't going to address individual comments in the posts below but I must say
as regards to insensitive attacks on President Bush, that is one of my biggest
fears, that he is President, a non-leader when we need one so badly. God help us
if we can not be critical of our government. Isn't that what the Taliban wants
most?

Judy Seigel wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Dave Rose wrote:
>
> > This is an excellent idea. It is very appropriate, and your timing could
> > not be better. I would love to participate. I have a beautiful photo of
> > the World Trade Center, taken from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. This
> > image is very special to me, and it would be suitable for inclusion in a
> > travelling portfolio. In this time of terrible sorrow, grief, and anger,
> > this kind of project is exactly what we need, as we move towards healing and
> > understanding.
> >
> > If your idea is "offensive" to anyone on this list, shame on them! It's too
> > bad that you'd be hesitant or have doubts in presenting this proposal, but I
> > can guess why. After all, one list member could not even wait for the ashes
> > to settle on 6,000+ dead/dying New Yorkers before launching an insensitive
> > attack upon President Bush, the police, the World Trade Center towers,
> > SUV's, oil companies, USA foreign policy, etc...... I strongly believe
> > that this 'kick America while she's down' mentality is limited to a very,
> > very small number of individuals. ...
>
> > "God Bless America" is a great title. I have a few suggestions as well:
> > "Unbroken Spirit", "United We Stand", "Glory of America", "A Cherished
> > Nation".
>
> Truthfully, Dave,I thought by now the "list minders" would have chided you
> for personal attack. Since this hasn't happened , I feel called upon to
> correct some misapprehensions -- and to suggest where your patriotism
> might be better directed.
>
> For one thing, you should e-mail the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com
> and give them your schedule for when it's OK to mention which ideas and
> information: their pages have been full of your *verboten* since Day Two.
>
> For another, there's our local weekly, vilpaper@aol.com, which has
> discussed the same issues -- amid the obits for our neighbors, and details
> of the devastation to our fire companies. You might also want to curtail
> your contributions to National Public Radio, which has beamed even MORE
> disquieting facts and discussions to the nation since day 2 or 3, as would
> surely give one with a sense of the fitness of things as acute as your own
> apoplexy. They even quoted E.B. White saying the Twin Towers looked like
> "cigar boxes upended" (so you might want to rip his books off your shelf).
>
> As a lifelong reader of the Times, however, I declare this their finest
> hour-- still a two kleenex affair (the Sunday issue bigger, more like 3
> kleenex): a fine balance of feeling & news, sentiment and ugly fact. For
> the latter, I recommend today's (Sunday's) article in section 4 by John
> Kifner: "Forget the Past: It's a War Unlike Any Other." I think you,
> Dave, need this more than any other: if you can't access it I'll copy &
> send. (While reading it at the kitchen table, however, I had to shut the
> window -- the stench of smoke, burning whatever, and ash suddenly
> overpowering -- as it can be when the wind changes.)
>
> In fact whoever can get a copy of today's Times really should -- among
> other memorable reports, Vivian Gornick on the "story" of those "missing"
> messages of which we have walls and walls, and which neighbors return to
> again and again, also, in case you have tears left, a double spread of
> missing fire fighters, all seemingly young and impossibly beautiful. I
> didn't count, maybe it's 100 of the 350 or thereabouts.
>
> Meanwhile, I confess I have relayed your sentiments far and wide, for
> instance Friday at my gym, where the sharing of horror stories is typical
> of almost every gathering of New Yorkers -- except these folks, from
> Tribeca, Soho and the Village are/were closer than most to the scene of
> devastation. Out of consideration for the list, I censor their comments,
> but share their body English:
>
> A. rolling of eyes or,
>
> B. closing of eyes, shaking head slowly left, right, left right.
>
> However, I fear that I myself have been at fault for not making my point
> about the World Trade Center clearly enough, being still (and forever)
> shaken and not my usual articulate self. Now is exactly the time to give
> witness to origins and safety defects of WTC & their cause, while the
> horror is still fresh and the future replacement still up for grabs... And
> -- perhaps not according to your schedule either -- the jockeying has
> already begun (as reported in paper last week & about which more below).
>
> The 1993 bomb in WTC underground garage killed 6, and in boilerplate of
> the papers "injured thousands." Those thousands were "injured" by smoke
> inhalation, exiting by the stairs -- most were OK after a few whiffs of
> oxygen, a couple of hundred were briefly hospitalized.... The reason for
> those "injuries" as the Times explained on day 2 or 3 after that event
> (perhaps also with unseemly haste) was that the Port Authority, a law unto
> itself, had refused to follow NYC fire regs in the matter of pressurizing
> stairways -- so the smoke poured in. PA did in time grudgingly upgrade in
> that respect, but the basic design was still fatally flawed.
>
> For instance, a woman interviewed on radio this past Friday told that when
> the first plane hit, at her floor but other side of the building, the
> doors to her office were locked from the outside. Someone came along & let
> them out -- into the pitch black crumbling hall, with NO EMERGENCY LIGHT.
> They held hands and, guided only by light of one man's cell phone, found a
> stair & began the descent. After a few floors, the stairs ended at a
> landing. There lights were on, but they faced two unmarked stairways.
> Choosing one entirely at random they followed it all the way down,
> stumbled into the air, and were told to RUN, without looking back. The
> other stairway, they learned later, ended a few floors below, with no
> ready connection to continued egress.... Does one have to be Nostradamus
> to think that interior configuration contributed to fact that (so far as
> is known) no one from top floors escaped?
>
> Meetings now about "rebuilding" (also covered in the Times) point out
> that-- surprise!-- the state wants a state "authority," that is, likes of
> Port Authority, free from city or other oversight, again, answerable to no
> one. City wants at least equal say. (The assumption that folks would take
> offices in a rebuilt even HIGHER simulacrum is, to me, another sign of the
> phenomenon of denial, of which you are poster child.)
>
> Meanwhile, in case I didn't make perfectly clear (I have been gentler than
> you deserve, for sake of the list) your dictats on how to be a patriot
> from 2200 miles behind the lines are appreciated. But may I suggest you
> put your money where your mouth is? Come to NYC and spend money. That's
> what Mayor Giuliani is telling everyone who wants to "help." If crowds
> don't return, we might as well be... (fill in your own blank).
>
> And finally, ..... brace yourself !! I too have a wonderful photograph of
> the WTC, better I bet than yours -- Nyah nyah! However, I'm not going to
> send it to the travelling portfolio because I'm saving it for cover of
> Post-Factory #7 (assuming I find it, last seen at my show in 1984). It's
> taken from the east, probably City Hall Park. Title is "Sun Takes a Bite
> Out of the World Trade Center": the setting sun, partly behind first
> tower, seems to do just that. It was solarized, toned with plating toner
> (as P-F #3, page 29) and very briefly blue toner.
>
> For another world-class photo: Ig Mata has an emulsion on glass scene of
> the skyline with twin towers she'll be selling at Grand Central gift show
> at Christmas... it is exquisite (as are all her photographs on glass
> objects) but now assumes more meaning than expected. There's been ample
> disruption of services around here, so it's not yet on her website, but
> you can get the general look & feel at www.igmata.com.
>
> I won't mention that your words in favor of "healing and understanding"
> seem not to compute in view of your other expressions. I'll just add my
> plea that whoever is moved to send a flame or kvetch that my commentary is
> "off topic" do so offlist.
>
> Judy


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