Richard Tuschman's Photographs: The Hopperesque World Distilled

I came across this link on Slate.com today: Wonderful photographic constructions by Richard Tuschman of the world-view that Edward Hopper put to canvas. The images, constructed in miniature  of staged settings, are informed by Hopper's work rather than attempt to reproduce it. Quiet, stillness, and intrigue all seem embedded in them. There is a hovering air of cinematic suspense. Tuschman's photos definitely give a sense of how Hopper's artistic vision has left a residue of how to see urban alienation— lonely, contemplative 1950s American life.

Have a look:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/11/25/richard_tuschman_edward_hopper_recreations_are_inspired_by_the_painter_s.html

"!2 Years A Slave" [dir., Steve McQueen]

It's incredibly difficult to know what to say about "12 Years A Slave.“ The film depicts the enslavement of Solomon Northup, a musician and free-born African American living in New York, lured to Washington, DC with the offer of a job performing, then is drugged and sold into slavery. Given a new name (Platt) and transported to the slave market in New Orleans, Northup is bought and traded amongst several owners eventually arriving at the plantation of Edwin Epps, where he lives for more than a decade until, with the help of an itinerant Canadian carpenter who held abolitionist views, he is able to secure his freedom. The film, directed by Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Elijofor as Northup, is brutally violent, deeply tragic, and morally complex, as it depicts perhaps as accurately as any film ever has the American experience of chattel slavery. It is hard to know how to capture even a portion of what the film delivers.

But while it’s difficult to know what to say about “12 Years” — save that the film should be seen— I suspect (and hope) that it will inspire lots of talking afterwards. That is every bit as it should be. It is a film that opens a door for conversations that we are often anxious to avoid, or worse don’t even see the need for. This summer we paid a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. Amongst the historic buildings, quaint shopfronts, and restaurants and gift shops, the tobacco plantation, with its program on the slave experience, had to be sought out— the plantation was set apart and the program required registration and was for limited numbers. As we sat on rough log benches under the blazing July sun, the historical interpreters — Robert Watson and Henry Caldwell— laid out candidly but sensitively the history of American slavery: such as the system of triangular trade, changes in laws of primogeniture made to preserve slavery as an institution, the devastating effects of the slave trade on family, sexual violence against women slaves, the genocide of Native Americans, how Christianity was deployed in the defense of slavery. They passed around heavy metal shackles, copies of slave market announcements, we stood in the hot fields picking bugs off tobacco leaves, we heard the crack of the lash against the plantation’s “whipping tree.” It was a powerful afternoon. Yet, our guides noted how nearly everyday, there are those who attend their program who deny that slavery happened in the way they depict. Many want desperately to believe we live in a post-racial America, that even if we accept this history that it has all been undone.

Somewhere in the first third of the film, Northup/Platt finds himself being punished by an overseer he has offended, who is determined to put him in his place. Northrup is strung up on the thick branch of a giant oak there in the plantation’s front yard, and though he is saved before he is killed, the act that protects Northup’s life is not so just as to allow for cutting him down. Instead, Northup is left dangling, surviving by the barest of margins as he stands on tiptoes struggling to maintain his balance in a tiny puddle of mud. As the camera lingers, life resumes around Northup: the master who saved him eventually departs, the terrified slaves emerge from their quarters where they have taken refuge, a couple of children play in the yard, the plantation’s mistress comes out to look for a time, then retreats back into her elaborate home. All the while, Northup literally hangs in the balance, struggling to make his footwork hold. Only one slave girl risks bringing him a tin cup full of water. That scene seemed to me to capture so much of what “12 Years A Slave” is about: the horror and violence of slavery is right there in front of us; can we find a way to discuss it and learn from it, rather than let privilege, hatred, or even fear allow us look away?

"Ruby Bridges"

In 1960, six year old Ruby Bridges became the first African American student to integrate the New Orleans public school system. Escorted by four federal agents and running a gauntlet of an untamed racist mob outside, she made her way to an empty classroom— white parents withheld their children rather than let them share a classroom with her. In the end, it was just her and Mrs Henry, her teacher. The two remain friends all these years later. Speaking tonight at the NCHC conference here in New Orleans, Ms Bridges reminded us of the lesson she learned all those years ago: "Racism is an adult disease. We need to stop using children to spread it." Here she is, depicted in an iconic work by Norman Rockwell: a small but determined girl, protected by officers who no matter how strong and tall can't shield her from the sting of hateful speech and the fear of violence. Still, there is a stoicism about her that lets us know this is someone who, against odds and obstacles, will make her way. Tonight she showed that, despite the wounds and ravages endured over the past half century, she has and is still.