My mother recently attended a family reunion that she's only tangentially part of, so she didn't know most of the people. While walking around and visiting, she happened upon a third cousin's daughter (or something), an artist who was proudly showing off her work.
They were brides, tastefully shot nude women, male models, improv photo shoots... all filled to the brim with blood spatter, pus, and other fluids that quite frankly should be left in the body they came from.
My mother, obviously, was absolutely stunned and horrified.
When she came home, she told us about it, and I thought it was bizarre and disgusting. Then something odd happened. I went on Facebook, and one of my friends had posted a photo of herself with a slashed-out eye, stitches separating the normal half of her face from a skinned meat other half, and blood utterly covering her clothes and upper body. She's quite pretty, but this did her NO favors at all, and I actually leaped out of my chair.
There was a watermark in the corner, so I checked the website. There, more blood, pus, bodily fluids and such splattered everywhere, along with horrifying photoshops of pretty girls and a couple handsome guys with morphed demon mouths, devil horns, green clawed hands, etc, many in a state of cannibalizing.
My question: Why the hell would attractive people AGREE to shooting this crap!? Is it ATTRACTIVE?!
I considered Googling some images, but I'm afraid I'd be successful. I'm also not telling you the website, I don't want it to get traffic.
EDIT:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/3074871735_a42d34c0e6.jpg
http://yurijz.exteen.com/images/Blood%2020.jpg
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRiYYDOe5734uzwwibWxIcMG6-bgrkWf5siqTnyPEms1vGdnLYs&t=1
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/3486106535_6fd894f43f.jpg
I'm taking a risk by posting these, seeing how I'm on probation.
There's much worse, but quite frankly I'd rather not search for it.
EDIT2: For further clarification, I am not dismissing it or declaring it a non-art. I'm just wondering how many people would track it down to look at, and why.
EDIT3: (Man, I need to clarify my posts better...) For even further clarification, I understand that emotional response means the art was effective by most definitions. I played Silent Hill 3, and Amnesia. I'm not particularly new to this type of imagery.
The difference is that SH3 and Amnesia didn't try to post themselves as attractive. Quite the opposite, they made it very clear that they wished to make you curl into a ball and cry (the abortion/birth/cannibalism scene in SH3, the Iron Maiden in Amnesia, etc). According to the girl my Mom talked to, she clearly thought these photos were beautiful, even worthy of the catwalks in a pageant. The choice of attractive people, the posing, and the choice of setting and colors (sans gore) makes me think the same of the stuff I've seen on the internet. And it's THAT concept I have such a negative reaction to. Negative enough that I had a small freakout and asked if I'm insane for thinking it's right and has an audience that genuinely is attracted to this sort of thing.
So no, I'm not trying to belittle people who love this sort of thing. I'm trying to come to terms with something that I feel has assaulted my senses. That's why I'm calming down as the thread progresses.
They were brides, tastefully shot nude women, male models, improv photo shoots... all filled to the brim with blood spatter, pus, and other fluids that quite frankly should be left in the body they came from.
My mother, obviously, was absolutely stunned and horrified.
When she came home, she told us about it, and I thought it was bizarre and disgusting. Then something odd happened. I went on Facebook, and one of my friends had posted a photo of herself with a slashed-out eye, stitches separating the normal half of her face from a skinned meat other half, and blood utterly covering her clothes and upper body. She's quite pretty, but this did her NO favors at all, and I actually leaped out of my chair.
There was a watermark in the corner, so I checked the website. There, more blood, pus, bodily fluids and such splattered everywhere, along with horrifying photoshops of pretty girls and a couple handsome guys with morphed demon mouths, devil horns, green clawed hands, etc, many in a state of cannibalizing.
My question: Why the hell would attractive people AGREE to shooting this crap!? Is it ATTRACTIVE?!
I considered Googling some images, but I'm afraid I'd be successful. I'm also not telling you the website, I don't want it to get traffic.
EDIT:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3141/3074871735_a42d34c0e6.jpg
http://yurijz.exteen.com/images/Blood%2020.jpg
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRiYYDOe5734uzwwibWxIcMG6-bgrkWf5siqTnyPEms1vGdnLYs&t=1
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/3486106535_6fd894f43f.jpg
I'm taking a risk by posting these, seeing how I'm on probation.
There's much worse, but quite frankly I'd rather not search for it.
EDIT2: For further clarification, I am not dismissing it or declaring it a non-art. I'm just wondering how many people would track it down to look at, and why.
EDIT3: (Man, I need to clarify my posts better...) For even further clarification, I understand that emotional response means the art was effective by most definitions. I played Silent Hill 3, and Amnesia. I'm not particularly new to this type of imagery.
The difference is that SH3 and Amnesia didn't try to post themselves as attractive. Quite the opposite, they made it very clear that they wished to make you curl into a ball and cry (the abortion/birth/cannibalism scene in SH3, the Iron Maiden in Amnesia, etc). According to the girl my Mom talked to, she clearly thought these photos were beautiful, even worthy of the catwalks in a pageant. The choice of attractive people, the posing, and the choice of setting and colors (sans gore) makes me think the same of the stuff I've seen on the internet. And it's THAT concept I have such a negative reaction to. Negative enough that I had a small freakout and asked if I'm insane for thinking it's right and has an audience that genuinely is attracted to this sort of thing.
So no, I'm not trying to belittle people who love this sort of thing. I'm trying to come to terms with something that I feel has assaulted my senses. That's why I'm calming down as the thread progresses.
