A Facebook Art History Lesson Protest by Richard Meade

http://figuremodels.org/blog/2013/08/08/a-facebook-art-history-lesson-protest-by-richard-meade/

by Zoe Wiseman

Any of us who have profiles on Facebook have probably at one time or another been faced with a 3 day ban, 30 day ban or a total ban for showing our art to our friends. And it’s not just Facebook though their “moderating” system is rather juvenile. It’s a neighbor spying on neighbor type of system that doesn’t follow any standardized rules. While I am not a fan of using a corporation’s free page to showcase your personal artwork, it still stands to say that there are some really nasty people with really nasty agendas in all of our friend lists. Not to allow Facebook to get off the hook for it because they allow the same nasty people to post images of animal torture, racism, neo-nazi groups, violence and a lot of general hate filled crap. So it’s not like Facebook is rated G. And how is it Playboy can have a profile there and post images? Not that I don’t think Playboy shouldn’t have a profile there, they absolutely should, I’m just pointing out the double standards. No Statue of David is allowed (yes, Facebook censored that), but a girl in a g-string with hundred dollar bills tucked in is. And I’m not picking on Playboy – I like Playboy – Hugh Hefner stood up to censorship (and racism) and Victorian era thinking years ago and won. Good for him, and thank you, Hugh! It’d be nice if lots of other people would stop accepting censorship.

I really really have it out for photography/art sites who censor nudes. I find that more repulsive than Facebook. 500px.Redbubble. Ya know… go to hell. And that is light because I don’t believe in hell, but it’s a nice term to use for this scenario. Lame website owners who are scared to tell the prudes who have issues with it to go to hell and that they won’t be a part of censorship might as well be supreme prudes of all the prudes. And yes, a “safe-filter” for art is censorship. There’s no veil over the Statue of David. Get over it. This kind of mentality contributes to people reporting other photographer’s images everywhere on the internet. It contributes to the censorship of free expression. It contributes to shoving those who work in our field of photography into a corner that says, “That person is bad.”

Richard Meade is a friend of mine who got censored all the time. And he got censored for displaying paintings on his Facebook wall, he got censored when he joined a black and white photography group on Facebook for sharing one of his nudes.

© Richard Meade – model: Candace Nirvana – the text Richard wrote before he cancelled his account: Well, I’m pretty burned out, so I’m going to leave with just two or three more posts. – It’s been fun and I appreciate all the comments and support. – This is my work that was recently censored by FB, and the ironic part is that it was censored in a black and white photography forum. So someone that is in that group had to report it. There are many nudes that continue to be posted in that group. – Stay creative friends.

Yes, other photographers in that group flagged his work and reported him to Facebook. How is it that they came to think that this was OK to do in the first place? Because everyone just accepts it. And more importantly other photographers accept it. Shouldn’t we all stop just laying down? How about we stop posting our work on sites that contribute to this form of censorship? If you go to any photography website the nudes have the most views and likes and comments. Do you believe that they would garner so much traffic to their website if everyone who posted nudes there just stopped? I would bet someone a hundred bucks that their traffic would slow to a crawl. So they like to use us all to their advantage, even though we have to sit in the corner with a dunce cap on.

So without further commentary by me, I’d like to share Richard Meade’s protest before he closed his FaceBook account. Not only was it highly educational, but it also shed the light on just how far the censorship lunatics go. Most of the works shared have been censored on Facebook. Time to stop sharing your work and pay homage to a website that doesn’t censor.

I haven’t linked any of the artists. I’m hoping that you, dear reader, will take it upon yourself to research those you find interesting or that you haven’t heard of before. Please click on the thumbnails below and scroll through for an enlightening experience. You may even comment under the photos or on this posting to join the conversation.

Thank you for the art history lesson, Richard. You can visit Richard Meade @richardmeade here or on his personal website http://www.visualdata.net

Tom Wesselmann

Alfred Stieglitz

Venus of Willendorf

Tamara de Lempicka

Ron Mueck

Robert Mapplethorpe

Rene Magritte

Phillip Pearlstein

Mel Ramos

Marie Guillemine Benoist

Man Ray

Lucian Freud

Jean Desire Gustave Courbet

Henri Emile Benoit Matisse

Hans Bellmer

Greek Sculptures

Edward Jean Steichen

Edvard Munch

David

Balthasar Klossowski

Andrew Newell Wyeth

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani

Vegetable Friends interview: Vic Singh

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/VegetableFriends/


Vic Singh has been so kind as to share some of his experiences with
us.. I am still in contact with him so watch this space..
ENJOY, VEGGIES....

Mr Vic Singh:
I started as a young photographer in Studio 5 in Shepards Market,
Mayfair London in the early 60's, other young photographers there
were Norman Eales, David Bailey. We were the founders of the swinging
sixties. At this time there were only men in drab grey suits unaware
of what was to follow. Studio 5 became very popular with its handsome
young photographers and dolly bird models, the start of the youth
culture. Suddenly fashion, music and design blossomed and invention
was the key word. The 60's exploded into a new universe and Carnaby
Street, Mary Quant, Vidal Sasson, The Beatles, Rolling
Stones etc. started happening. I was one of the "In Crowd" making a
load of money and having a groove.

> Can you tell us more about what happened around the
> time THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN cover photo
> sessions took place? (cues: CONTACT WITH Syd
> Barrett/Pink Floyd, the SLEEVE CONCEPT, what you know
> about the genesis of SYD'S DESIGN on the back sleeve)

Around 1966-67 the first time I set eyes on the Pink Floyd was in
Piccadilly Circus, there was some sort of event taking place. They
were standing under the statue of Eros and looked very spaced out and
we had a few words. Remember that at this time they were a unknown
group like many others. I was well known in the music business as a
photographer and friend besides taking fashion and advertising
photos. I had left Studio 5 and opened my own studio in Mayfair and a
short time after meeting the Pink Floyd their manager rang me and
asked me to shoot their first album cover. I asked "What would you
like on it" he said "Leave it up to you". I was a friend of George
Harrison and used to pop in to visit and have lunch at his house in
Esher, wife Patti doing the cooking, going for a swim in the
pool and sitting around chatting, anyway George had bought this
prismatic lens and did not know what to do with it so he gave it to
me. I did not know what to do with it either - until The Pink Floyd.
So I decided it was right for them rang their manager and asked him
to go shopping and get them bright phsydelic clothes that would stand
out because the lens multiplied the image and made it soft.
They turned up in the studio - we totally got out of it and had their
music very loud reverberating around the studio, they put on their
gear and I shot the photo on a white background with strobe lights on
a Hasselblad. It was a very spaced out session, the music was so loud
you could hear it wafting down Bond Street, I had a few complaints -
never mind. They were well pleased with the results and went off with
the photos. It was probably at this time that Sid got into designing
the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" album cover, putting in the
lettering in the space on the front of the cover and designing the
back, in which I was not involved. I was just the initial spark that
set the whole thing rolling, it was like that in the
60's.....invention. You may notice that The Floyd have a fascination
with prisms and light spectrums even on their later albums. Light is
the mother of invention.

> What do you think of the REISSUE of Piper in
> comparison to the original release?

Looks like the record company has had a slick art director on the
job and brought it into the new millennium.

> Anything that may provide more insight in your
> relationship with Syd Barrett? :-)

I lost touch with Sid and the rest of the group after the session
simply because there was so much going on. Besides running my studio,
I lived in the Kings Road with my model girl friend. There would be
at least thirty people sitting around when I got home, at least 4
parties to go to, getting very out of it, going for a drink with 30
people, going to Alvaros for dinner (this was the "In" restuarant),
going to the parties and finally ending up in the WestEnd night club
until 4 in the morning, having sex and finally starting a shoot at 9
in the morning and the rest of it - an was an unbelievable time - I
probably over did it a bit.
I think Sid really got into the visual side and formed a group of
artists to work with.

> Are there any written sources on any of these
> topics that you know of?

Yes. My friend John Cavanagh who works for the BBC has written a
book about "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and has done research on
the subject.



>Do you know what George Harrison thought of the Pink
>Floyd?

>Mr Vic Singh:

Can't remember George saying anything about the Pink Floyd,
he talked about mysticism a lot. A subject we all loved.
I did tell George that I had used the prism lens he gave to
shoot a cover shot for the Pink Floyd and that it had come
out smashing.

>Sofar you have given us some valuable insights in the
>genesis of the Piper sleeve. It may interest you to
>know that in Storm Thorgerson's book "Mind Over Matter
>- The Images Of Pink Floyd", Storm states the
>following:
>"I don't think this front photo was made by
>sandwiching transparencies or by multiprinting; more
>likely by a multiple exposure actually in camera,
>though I could be wrong. The picture goes some way
>towards evoking the contemporary sensibility - a nod
>in the direction of psychedelia - and provides a sense
>of the lovable mop tops (after The Beatles), as Nick
>likes to call early Floyd, as well as current styling
>trends in floral jackets and cravats. The Floyd
>themselves were probably too excited by stardom to
>have had that much input. Vic Singh where are you now,
>to tell us the the actual genesis of this piece?"

>Maybe you would like to comment on this paragraph?

I think Storm is trying to treat the subject as the interlectual.

When in reality it is quite basic.
The Floyd had no idea what they wanted in so many words.
It was more an invisible vibe, whatever you call that spaced,
psychedelic.
The photo was taken with a prismatic lens which happened to
be present at the time, with which I had not taken any pictures
because the lens was too farout - psychedelic form the norm. The Pink
Floyd and their music an innovation at the time. The lens fitted
their image perfectly, like a hand in the glove, so I used it as a
matter of chance, being at the right place at the right time.
Chance is a wonderful magical thing - how can anyone explain it and
its workings.
the clothes needed to have bright rich colours for the prismatic lens
which softened the image. So they got some floral jackets and
cravats - probably the only brightly coloured clothes they could find
at that time.

As far as the lovable mop tops (after The Beatles), thats another
story. I was a mate of Vidal Sasson his hair salon was in Bond Street
across the road from my photo studio, he actually loaned me some cash
to start up my studio and I used to shoot some of his early hair
styles. The mop tops were originally invented by Vidal for chicks,
becoming fashionable it spilled over to pop. Every pop singer had the
mop top after the Beatles success.

The true reality about the mop top is this - at that time if a guy
had his hair length below his ears he was jeered in the
street "bloody faggot, especially by workmen who would
catcall and shout obscence queer things like "look at her - get your
hair cut ninney" and a lot worse. It was against the law to be gay.

>[Storm Thorgerson in Mind Over Matter:]
>Vic Singh where are you now,
>to tell us the the actual genesis of this piece?"

I am sitting here writing to you about the actual genesis - fear not!

> Now, in the same coffee table book, Storm also
> mentions a millennium T-shirt design by Jon Crossland
> which was based on the album Piper At The Gates Of
> Dawn. This design had been a psychedelic cockerel, a
> "dawn piper", but it was rejected by the later Floyd
> in favour of a pixellated pic of Syd.
>
> This raises the question as to whether you yourself
> had considered any other concepts for the Piper
> sleeve, before the final prismatic lens design was
> approved?

No, there was no other designs. The sleeve was designed by chance,
beyond the realms of the marketing man and spin much more in the
realm of magic - how can one improve on something like that. I still
work my pictures in this way, finding that concious visulisation only
goes that far, but adding chance and the subconcious give magic and
mystery of art to the image - otherwise its another PR photo.

>To what extent were you involved in the
>repackaging project for the Piper CD?

Not involved.

> What do you think of the Piper album itself (musically)?

Very brave, the album commands respect. When I first heard it I did
not think it would be a success, because it was so different to all
the other music Beatles, Stones, Elvis, Beach Boys etc. of that time.
The Pink Floyd are one of those groups that should not
really be here and yet they are...... this in itself transcends all
the hypocrisy, arrogance in a society that sucks.

Best wishes,
Vic

>Thanks a lot for all your time, Vic. We highly
>appreciate the gesture.

Grimble Gromble,
VegetableFriends, 2003

A Few Orphaned Good Borrowed Images From Lost Sources

Jad Fair

Joe Coleman

Click Mort

A Few, Good, Borrowed (In Entirety From a Fellow Borrower) Images To Get Goin' Again

I've been accused of being like the Wizard of Oz, the man hiding behind the curtain pulling the strings to put on a show, so no one sees the real me... This may well be partially true, especially in the series of "Few, Good, Borrowed Images" here on this blog, where I throw random images out there for consumption with little or no comment from the presenter... This is also the way I utilize my facebook page, just re-posting links, videos, and images, again with little or no comment from myself coloring the viewers initial reaction to the subject... On the rare occasions when I check the stats for this blog, postings from the "Few, Good, Borrowed Images" series always dominate the top ten... So here, with pleasure, I present a page of  someone else's few, good, borrowed images... In this case, from a facebook friend, Bob Reuter, who posted these as a facebook note entitled "Flawed Souls"... Good job, Bob, definitely worth "borrowing" from a fellow borrower...