Cross-Cultural Blog

I think my image speaks to my desire to succeed. My desire to achieve everything I put my mind to. I think it this is the most powerful aspect of the picture. With Muhammad Ali standing tall and proud over his opponent, I get the impression that with strong determination you can achieve anything. As far as cultural beliefs, I think that the picture brings up the question as to whether or not our society is all about the short term. Do you we substitute short term gains for long term prosperity? I think in this picture it is saying that the short term gratification is all we can strive for. We should constantly strive to satisfy ourselves with short term happiness. My personal belief is that I can do anything I set my mind to and this picture makes me believe that is true. His belt says “Everlast” and to me this statement just further invokes the thoughts about greatness and success. When I look at this picture I feel invincible. I feel like no one has the power to stop me and I think this basic feeling is invoked throughout humanity. Personally the thought of invincibility is not something I usually think about, but when I look at this picture I no longer feel as if I can die, or have flaws as we all know humans do.

I think this photo also plays to the fact that humans have all the power and skills to achieve anything. They can conquer the world and there is nothing or no one more powerful. I think this statement brings into question as to whether or not there is a higher being such as God. I do not know whether or not this is true, but judging from the picture I would say that, there is nothing more powerful than the human ingenuity, power, and skill in certain situations. This might not be more apparent than in a boxing ring. The question it leaves me with is whether or not humans will one day be able to control nature or whether nature will leave us behind and continue to rule the world. To this day this picture conjures nostalgic thoughts about the past, about achievement, and pride. These thoughts are continually present on the global stage because every nation wants to “be the best”. I think the concern over human success and achievement, is relevant today especially between the major world powers such as U.S.A., Russia, and China. These countries continually compete in a dialog across the globe that tries to establish their superiority to one another. I believe these countries, their people, and especially their leaders have a belief that they are “the best”. I think this picture is so successful and memorable because it plays to this perfectly. The photo allows people everywhere in every county, no matter how rich or poor to have faith in themselves; to believe that they can achieve anything. I think this basic human desire to rise up and gain for themselves what their parents never had is something that is portrayed perfectly by this photo. This photo firmly establishes the connection between human achievement and power.

I think that nature is a beautiful thing and that the complex organisms that inhabit this planet epitomize that beauty. I believe that there is a moral as well as an aesthetic justification to protect those elements of this world that should remain to some extent untouched. When looking at this image of an elephant carcass, I feel a deep sense of loss, not only for this individual’s life which was lost to poaching, but for the thousands of similar acts that have already occurred and are yet persisting. However, I don’t think that my reaction is unique. Much of the power in the image comes from its ability to cause us, the audience, to feel personally responsible for the act; the landscape is desolate, the colors muted, and at the center of the entire work is an image of human destruction. Considering the recent history of the environmental movement, it is likely that many people today feel that issues like global warming and increasing rates of species extinction are being greatly exaggerated.

But in this one picture, we find cause to reflect upon reality. Seeing photographic proof of the death of an animal –the elephant-- that we have been taught to practically idolize since childhood, shatters the ideal of permanence, of all-powerful and enduring elements of nature. Instead, the image shows us that we must confront a darker reality not only through its subject but through the way in which it is presented. As said before, the picture’s focus—a decomposing elephant corpse—is itself very powerful in conveying the destruction of a great species. But, its surroundings also help to tell the story. The plants in the photograph are the only living organisms, and even they are blackened against a backdrop of overcast skies. The image is, in its entirety, grey; desolate; dying.

Portraying the bleak aspect of human interaction with a “pristine” wilderness is obviously the main message of the image. However, it may seem strange that this one instance contains so much power in the face of the problem’s magnitude. Hundreds of thousands of elephants may have been indiscriminately killed over the course of many decades, but the picture of just one somehow speaks volumes on their behalf. Even more, it can be seen to represent the unimaginable impact of humans on the entire range of Earth’s species. The significance of this is the ubiquitous reaction of people from across the planet to this kind of destruction: the consequences of our actions are profound, but equally so is the way in which this picture may reach a global audience.

There are, however, many angles that the photograph fails to address, one of which is hopeful. While the picture is meant to inspire a sense of impending doom, not everyone is out with a gun attempting to rid the world of its elephants. People can be both the problem and the solution, and for every victim of poaching, there is some person working to prevent future deaths from occurring. What’s more, there is the complication of why it is that people poach. It is easy to assume indiscriminate greed, but what if poaching is the only source of livelihood for people that need to provide for themselves and their families? Once the problem is identified, there is hope for finding a good solution.
Finally, I think that the only real fault of the picture—strange as it may sound—is that it only shows one image. The nature of any such issue is, after all, multi-dimensional, and while this one idea may be expressed very well, there are other stories to be told before the full story can be understood. We are, in a sense, forced to confront a grave reality and then additionally to face the resulting wave of questions that it raises. The answers to some of them may come from the missing images, some from the ways in which they interact, and some may not exist. But at least there is some comfort in knowing that there are images like this one that can put us on that path.

I took this picture from inside my dorm room in the spring term of my senior year of high school. I first noticed the empty nest on the ledge in the fall, and was excited when I noticed a robin repeatedly checking it out one day. Two days later she laid her first porcelain, baby blue egg. I started researching everything I could about robins, their life and reproductive cycles, and prepared myself for the birth of “my” four chicks, expected in 12-14 days. This picture was taken mere hours after the first chick hatched, while the mother went to collect food. I love the intricate details in the woven construction of the nest, and the contrast between the natural construction and the expanse of man-made brick-and-mortar wall looming behind it. The wall rises strong and imposing on one side, the painted, black window ledge creates a perfect nook for the nest to rest on, and slight shadows hint at the overhang above, covering the nest from spring rains and mid-day sun. The two new, pink, featherless, and sightless chicks huddle for warmth as the third yet struggles to break free of its shell. The babies are fragile, vulnerable, and brand new additions to this wide, wide world… The next day while I was in class a hawk attacked and raided the nest. When I returned the nest was disheveled and any indication my chicks had ever been there was gone. The mother robin never returned.

To me, this image represents the imperfect harmony that exists between humans and the rest of the world. I am not a religious person, and I don’t believe in much besides science, but I do believe that there is a connection between all the elements and beings of the earth; that we are all codependent in our coexistence. The world is full of beautiful beginnings and fresh starts, but these developments are unstable and unpredictable. Like for these robin chicks, an amazing future can stretch out before you just to be stolen and erased in seconds, as when they were snapped up by a hawk less than 24 hours after hatching. Things do happen for a reason; the hawk’s chicks were fed that night because the robins were exposed on their man-made roost… There are intelligible forces driving all actions and occurrence. It may be an imperfect balance, but the important fact is that it exists.

Man has been endowed with many additional abilities that nature knows not, such as the power of reason and the power of intellect to create and add to that which he has been given. More often than not though, it seems that he only hurts or hinders rather than contributes to nature. Man is not inherently good or bad, but it is within his nature to want too much, to take too much, and to feel too much… Nature is like a child, naïve and innocent; she doesn’t understand why every day more trees are taken from her forests or homes from her creatures. She doesn’t grudge us our mistakes, and seldom lashes out through freak weather or natural disasters. Yet in her own way, she is more ruthless in her taking; it is only a matter of survival. When man takes, he often feels guilt and he belatedly tries to make amends, even though this sometimes causes more distress rather than ameliorating what has already been done. There is certainly a balance between man and nature, but I’m not sure I would call it by some trite label such as “the circle of life.” It seems more appropriate to call it, perhaps, an arabesque of life. An arabesque is an assembly of repeating shapes and designs that together constitute an unlimited pattern symbolizing the infinite, chaotic nature of creation. That is the relationship between nature and man: an infinite series of forces and reactions, defined by nature only as survival, and always examined and critiqued by man as something inexplicably more.

From Google

This picture is of the great Lakota Sioux warrior and Leader Big Foot after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.

When I look at the picture of a frozen Sioux man in the snow there are many personal beliefs and values it speaks to within me. This picture brings out a bunch of concepts: hatred, disillusionment, misunderstanding, carelessness, vulnerability, assimilation, manifest destiny and much more. Coming from a family who is part Native American I have a certain belief about these situations in the core of me. My ancestors died in similar ways, by similar people all in the quest of moving west as a nation. They were driven by misunderstanding, greed and hate. Morally, It speaks to my philosophy of treating each person I meet as an individual as much as possible. To remain as color, race, sexual orientation blind as possible and just get to know someone on an individual level be for I judge them. This speaks to the provocation of white misunderstanding and the lies about how “savage” and uncivilized these Native American people were. Culturally, this picture is a symbol of and ending and eternal altering of a way of life of a people. Soon they would see assimilation, boarding schools, slums called reservations, alcoholism, drug addition and McDonald’s as their new way of life. What little culture that they fought for and resisted to neglect despite so many assimilation tactics, is now facing apathy and disregard. For the few that still remember and understand the pain their ancestors endured to ensure that they walked this earth, this is disheartening. It is natural for culture to change and evolve, but there are some realms of human nature that seem far from normal in nature’s natural order.

Whoever took this photo did it in a deliberate fashion and wanted to invoke a deliberate reaction. I think it is important to note that what increases how disturbing this photograph is, is the inclusion of the horse and 4 men in the background who do not seem to notice or care about the dead individual. It is natural for human’s to have some type of sadness, reverence or deliberate distance from the dead, but complete ignorance or deliberate ignorance seems unnatural for human being and I believe that is the root of why this picture is so disheartening. It seems that the photographer had some kind of connection to this dead man or to his people and did not hold the same views of the men in the upper right hand corner. This was not necessarily a scientific or celebratory photo of a great Indian hunt or of collecting the remains of a culture thought to be going extinct in the 1890s. Another question is why did the photographer pick this individual? This idea or concept of an old man is interesting to interject in our interpretation. This old man seems to be at an age where it is “natural,” to use the word, to die or pass on. However his death in this picture seems disturbing and in many ways “unnatural.” Why? In my reasoning it has to do with humanities innate tendency to respect the dead. In this photo there seems to be no respect for this body. The snow has not been brushed away, nor have the clothes been prepared in a nice fashion. The other humans have let nature take over and allowed the snow to cover this man. In this way it goes against human nature, but in some respects is natural, that is not altered by humans. Secondly the man sits in a contorted and once again “unnatural” position. He seems uncomfortable and this makes the viewer somewhat uncomfortable.

The photographer wanted the viewer to be disturbed and uncomfortable. However they did not want to degrade nor make the dead man seem less than human. It is not like an autopsy photo or a picture of a cut of meat. It is dignified although it is mortifying. This photo wants to show a tension between the people in the photo. It wants to display an injustice that is ignored or unrecognized. One Social political issue I could relate this photo to may be genocide in Darfur, or globalization, or even the loss of the rain forest. This beacons us as humans to look in the face of our decisions and choices that we make, no matter what the rational and ask ourselves to really evaluate if what we are doing is helping each other and is ‘right’ or if we are just perpetuating a greater ignorant path of destruction of our environment and the people around us.

Conclusion:

Whether violent, intelligent, natural, or other, forces surround us. Human power, in all its myriad forms, is an especially vivid and inescapable aspect of our daily livelihood, yet it also exerts a potent influence on our natural surroundings. Examining this influence eco-critically, we discover more questions than answers. Why are humans so unique in the encompassing view of the world’s creatures? Can we co-exist symbiotically, or will our “different-ness” always set us apart? Perhaps most interesting, are humans a successful species, or is there actually something unnatural about us?