Despite that title this isn’t about Trump. Our target is the godfather of public relations and nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays. He is largely responsible for how we perceive the world today, photographers and civilians alike. Until Bernays people needed things, with the help of psychology and his uncle Sigmund people began wanting stuff. And a lot of it. Corporations loved him and didn’t care about the manipulation and deception. Possibly the reason why we want, not need, that new lens or camera.
An early example: American Tobacco were frustrated that women didn’t smoke, half their potential market place not up in smoke. They went to Bernays and asked why it was frowned upon and seen as unladylike. He employed, at great cost, a psychologist (who’d studied under his uncle) to find out. The answer was that a cigarette is like a penis. I’d say that’s pretty much typical Freud. Bernays arranged for a group of models to walk through New York smoking. The press photographed whilst Bernays told them - They’re holding “Torches of Freedom, just like Lady Liberty”. Sales boomed.
You don’t need me to tell you how Bernays and his methods, once fine-tuned, influenced business and politics alike. Not a great leap of the imagination and now it’s ingrained into our way of thinking. You can take that all the way through to the craving for “stuff” and need for validation. That new lens or camera is going to make no difference whatsoever, unless you need them because you currently don’t have either. We’re being controlled and manipulated into wanting them. Similarly the likes on Instagram or Facebook are of total irrelevance unless you enjoy feeding the Meta machine. The vast amount of contributors gain absolutely zero in any case. It’s meaningless. Worse still, I believe many photographers are taking shots purely for their feeds. Would you still be photographing if you weren’t posting on Meta?
I know for sure my friend Jeff Chane-Mouye-Mouye isn’t. He bowed out from contributing to social media a long time ago. Not only that, when brands such as Ricoh ask to use his photos he asks - “How much are you paying?”. Of course they don’t want to pay anything and it really is their loss. What Jeff is doing is photographing for himself. He’s got it right. I know that photographs need to be seen and I assure you his work would get a zillion likes, but to what end. Instead Jeff posts to his website, that’s the place they are seen and appreciated. Up yours Bernays!
I last posted three months ago on Instagram, I don’t miss it. I look occasionally to see if my friends Kevin Haggith, Vinnie Øyvind or Ash Sowter have uploaded anything. For now, I’m posting everything here. I’m shooting for myself.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails. Not that it matters they were made using a Leica M with a Summicron 28mm lens fitted. I used an Apple keyboard to type it all out.
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