From: Greg Schmitz (gws1@columbia.edu)
Date: 09/26/03-11:01:46 PM Z
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Judy Seigel wrote:
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> considering Newton one of the greats, explained that the actual problem
> isn't so much pornography, but pornography that masquerades as art -- for
> instance E. Weston's shots of Charis with her legs spread (very soft porn
> indeed by today's standards of course, but the lubricious element is
> always ignored in the winds of hagiography.)
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Judy,
I have to disagree with you. I thought the photograph of Charis was
sexually charged the minute I saw it, and took that as the intention
of both Edward and Charis. I don't think either of them hid the
erotic nature of what they were about or up to. I don't have a copy
of CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST at hand but as I recall Charis, in the 1st
or 2nd paragraph, mentions that after receiving the letter awarding
the Guggenheim they 'performed some calisthenics appropriate to the
occasion.' I wasn't around in 1940 (or was it '41) but I suspect that
might have been considered kind of "racy" at that time. A friend of
mine knew, worked and partied with Charis in the late 1970's. Based
on his accounts of her she was quite "sexual" and didn't make any
attempt to hide it. Any misinterpretation of the image, IMHO, would
have been by the folks who embraced Weston and his work. After all
Nancy Newhall did much to "sanitize" Weston's writings as did others.
-greg
==========
All of our current environmental problems are unanticipated harmful
consequences of our existing technology. There is no basis for
believing that technology will miraculously stop causing new and
unanticipated problems while it is solving the problems that it
previously produced.
Prof. Jared Diamond, UCLA
Harper's Magazine, 2003 June
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