100 SURREAL STREET PHOTOGRAPHS - B&W

UDAI SINGH (IN)
Rudolf Arnheim in one of his papers on the “Nature of
Photography” mentions “The Balcony”, a play by Jean Genet.
I have browsed it quickly and it is amazing how in a couple of
lines of a play mostly centred on the appropriation of
revolutions, we may find the answer to some recurrent
questions in photography.
After a staged photographic session of bishops, generals and
judges (what a mix!) the Queen is informed:
THE ENVOY: It’s a true image, born of a false spectacle.
FIRST PHOTOGRAPHER (cynically): That's common practice,
your Majesty. When some rebels were captured, we paid a
militiaman to bump off a chap I'd just sent to buy me a packet of
cigarettes. The photo shows a rebel shot down while trying to
escape.
THE QUEEN: Monstrous!
THE ENVOY: But have things ever happened otherwise? History
was lived so that a glorious page might be written, and then
read. It's reading that counts.
STREET CORE PHOTOGRAPHY 2021
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