This post is a bit late for celebrating Flag Day 2010 (June 14) but I didn't want to go another year without sharing these photographs.
I took these pictures 7 or 8 years ago. I still lived in Las Vegas, NV and was still using a film camera. I scanned these images from negatives. I haven't laid hands on that camera in 5 years.
I recently digitized these because a friend played host to an event wherein a bunch of art curators had a slide show looking for new "talent." Everyone voted for their favorite at the end of the night. Or something like that. I'm artsy fartsy and wanted to be a part of it so I pulled these pics out of my archive. These images were never given public exposure after I took them. A few friends got to see them and remarked how much they liked them. I gotta agree. Bold, overly dramatic, and throughly obnoxious. But also picturesque and demanding a storyline which is never provided. Maybe I'm reading too much into it?
I always hoped someone would agree with me that these are art-worthy and hang them in a gallery even though flag burning is beating a dead cliche. The shock and yawn of the politics on display here is played out and maybe even boring to today's eyes. When I look at these images it's not politics I see at work it's the destruction of American values and the destruction wrecked by those values leading to the ultimate fall of the giant industry that is American society. I guess it's impossible to separate the politics from these pics, huh? Still I see an atmosphere here which is more akin to a Mad Max apocalypse than anti-imperialist protest cliches. But the two go hand in hand anyway so why choose up sides?
Here come the cliches. They are unavoidable. Celebrating the stars and stripes without admitting all men are not equal, makes you look like a willfully ignorant asshole. Cherishing the flag while disregarding a history of racism, classism, and genocide of the native population, makes you a disgusting human being who seeks to uphold and celebrate tyranny. If you love the flag and the illusion that this country works for you, then you deserve to be turned into a lampshade. Which will probably be your fate if you find yourself unable to be exploited by the machinery that's in place to make the other rich. Don't get me wrong, nobody hates a know it all more than I. I'm not that fuckin smart, but these concepts are in my face everyday. If you see these facts and deny their truth, you don't understand the substance and why it is important for our world today; WHY ARE YOU READING THIS BLOG? I could go on but if you refuse to see these things then we are probably enemies. I'm not gonna argue with you. I just want you to go away and not investigate my life every again.
Self righteous expression is over. Now back to the point of this post.
I submitted all these photos for this art-event but I got the time wrong and ended up missing the whole thing. I'm such an idiot. I've always been curious to see how people might react to these photos but I guess I'll never be able to see the honest reactions. Hopefully someone out there loves or hates me for this.
Here come the cliches. They are unavoidable. Celebrating the stars and stripes without admitting all men are not equal, makes you look like a willfully ignorant asshole. Cherishing the flag while disregarding a history of racism, classism, and genocide of the native population, makes you a disgusting human being who seeks to uphold and celebrate tyranny. If you love the flag and the illusion that this country works for you, then you deserve to be turned into a lampshade. Which will probably be your fate if you find yourself unable to be exploited by the machinery that's in place to make the other rich. Don't get me wrong, nobody hates a know it all more than I. I'm not that fuckin smart, but these concepts are in my face everyday. If you see these facts and deny their truth, you don't understand the substance and why it is important for our world today; WHY ARE YOU READING THIS BLOG? I could go on but if you refuse to see these things then we are probably enemies. I'm not gonna argue with you. I just want you to go away and not investigate my life every again.
Self righteous expression is over. Now back to the point of this post.
I submitted all these photos for this art-event but I got the time wrong and ended up missing the whole thing. I'm such an idiot. I've always been curious to see how people might react to these photos but I guess I'll never be able to see the honest reactions. Hopefully someone out there loves or hates me for this.
I mean no offense to veterans. The ones most likely to be incensed. I'm sure any apology I give won't mean shit to you so I won't even bother apologizing. The more I think about it the more I have to wonder how shocking these images are in today's world? Even maybe to veterans- but what the fuck do I know?
I should ask my dad to check these pictures out. I'm sure he wouldn't care one way or the other at this point. Although years ago I remember him coming home after a few drinks after work and telling me he'd kick my ass if he saw me wiping my ass with the flag or something like like. Yeah maybe I'll ask him to look at these sometime. He's a veteran.
I should ask my dad to check these pictures out. I'm sure he wouldn't care one way or the other at this point. Although years ago I remember him coming home after a few drinks after work and telling me he'd kick my ass if he saw me wiping my ass with the flag or something like like. Yeah maybe I'll ask him to look at these sometime. He's a veteran.
I like what these photos represent. It's what I look for in art. It's easy to decipher. It might be a little trite but it forces you to be a part of it and it's a release that is loud and in your face.
I want to see the end of American hypocrisy found in the ruins of a deserted landscape. That's all that's left. Desolation. Emptiness. It's celebrated in a last futile gesture on top of a mountain. I imagine smoke rising in different spots on the desert floor hundreds of feet below. If you look close enough smoke, or more appropriately smog can be seen suffocating the valley off in the distance, which appears to be civilization. That valley is... you guessed it Las Vegas, Nevada.
Can you tell this is a view from the top of a mountain? I did not manipulate these images in any way. No photoshop. Nothing digital was used aside from the scanner for the negatives. The camera used was a Minolta STsi Maxxum. It might have a digital interface. I'm not sure but I know it's a film camera.
These photographs were not staged. They came about quite by accident. After all that 9/11 bullshit was going down and then the rush to go to war with Iraq escalated I was severely disillusioned with the world and my role in it. I can't sugarcoat it. I fucking hated America so much I cried almost every night. I couldn't sleep from staying awake burning in my own anger. I felt so powerless I more or less dug a hole and crawled into it after moving to Portland. Can I still be your friend if I admit I just got wasted everyday for two years? These photographs being the last creative thing I did before sleeping it off for three years. Did I say four years? Who knows how long it had been?
The last year that I lived in Vegas I went on a bunch of solo hikes outside the valley. One day I decided to hike Lava Butte, the small black mountain that can be seen behind Frenchmen Mountain to the south. If you're headed east on Tropicana you can see it pretty clearly. I'd been there before with friends. It's not too formidable a climb and it allows a great view of Lake Mead and Las Vegas without the hassle/hell of climbing Frenchmen.
Still it was a difficult climb that day. Making my way to the top out of breath, my heart sank when I saw this American flag planted at the top. Even in the middle of nowhere in my solitude I was given reminders of the bullshit turn my country had taken. Even something as innocuous as this felt like a slap in the face. I took it personally. But what more or less could I have done? I was alone at the narrow summit of a mountain I just climbed! I worked hard to get here you fuckin assholes. My reward was another reminder of what is wrong with my society? How dare you?
I still smoked cigarettes at that time so I fumbled for a lighter as soon as I saw the flag, but caught myself. Shit. Didn't I bring my camera up here? I sat down. Smoked my cigarette and planned out the shoot which would need to happen quickly. Who knows how long this flag would burn? It was made in China so it could go up like a dried out Christmas tree two weeks after New Years. Gotta be quick and ready to get at least three or four shots off.
Strangely that desert wind didn't want to blow that day even on top of a mountain. That worked to my advantage and in flash the flag ablaze and I was able to capture some gold.
These images tell a story. Many stories. Hopefully you can see some of those stories as well from your own point of view.
I can't speak to how I feel about my country today 7 days after Flag Day 2010. My opinion changes so often it's hard to keep track. I love my America but that doesn't mean I love your America. Chances are good I hate your America. I'm hoping this will be the way America celebrates Flag Day someday in the distant future. In the meantime I'm content to remember the time when I was on top of the world and I destroyed America. I wish you coulda been there. But then it probably wouldn't have been the same.
If you like em feel free to take these images direct from this page. If you would like a high quality scan of these images please download them below. Makes a great screensaver!
If these sentiments piss you off. Tough shit. Go live in a country that kills people like me.
If these sentiments piss you off. Tough shit. Go live in a country that kills people like me.
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