The first time I saw this photo I did not know much of the historical context, though it still struck quite a chord with the adolescent me, on the cusp on independence - to an extent - as I made my way from high school to college. This was around the time I started getting heavy in to Bob Dylan, and it jived with most of the ideas that he was turning me on to as well. To be honest I'm still not 100% on the whole political ramifications of this photograph, but as some white American removed from conflict I can still, almost completely, reflect on what goes through me when I see it and think about what it is 'saying.' That phrase kind of pisses me off, by the way. If my reading of the photo is politically off base I guess you can hold that against me, but in the grand scheme of things politics only matter as much as they hinder or promote the process of artistic creation.
To me I see a display of individualism. I think we all, collectively, talk about the freedom of individual expression, but only in as much as it does not jeopardize the freedoms that we all enjoy. In a way I am guilty of this as well, we like to rock the boat, not drill a hole in it and grow gills. But here the contrast works perfectly, man against the machine, both literally and figuratively. The future is not a concern, the liberation and expression is what is captured. What comes before or after is irrelevant. What we have is a means of expression, forever still and expressing. Faceless and nameless, at least if we only examine the photo, and perhaps simply beautiful. The photo does not need to happen in Tienanmen Square, it can be anywhere on Earth at any time as far as I'm concerned because, politically, it does not much matter what motivations led to its existence. What matters is the message, the life it has taken on in me, in this post, in whoever reads the post, and that...well that is beauty.
Thanks for reading.
Tomorrow's Topic: Literary Quotation
Rich
This photo is incredible.
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