Pictures at an exhibition
by Bob on April 6, 2007
Pictures at an Exhibition is a beautiful set of piano pieces by Mussorgsky. Absolutely charming.
Now to think about that in the context of modern life.
One sees countless photographs on the web of a person taking a photo of himself with a digital camera or cell phone camera in a mirror, afterwards posting it on his page.
It's an odd announcement of sorts. It's usually always awkward and seemingly un-natural.
It would seem to be steeped in either pride, Narcissism, self-adulation, or a simple desire to express one's self and be seen on the web. Or it might just be a reaching out to other people.
But it is still awkward compared to a naturally taken photograph. It doesn't seem to fit. There must be better ways to define one's self to the world.
The ancient myth of Echo and Narcissus is always instructive. Echo wound up only being able to repeat other's words, and Narcissus drowned looking at an image of himself reflected in a pool of water -- with which he fell in love.
In 1979, Christopher Lasch wrote a brilliant book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. Lasch worried about pathological narcissism in our age, amongst other lines of thought.
One cannot help but return to the either open or rhetorical question is such practice on one's page simply a self-indulgence, independent of what anyone else might think.
Nice and natural photographs are wonderful to see.
Pictures taken of one's self in a mirror might be a bit much to bear. One wonders.
Perhaps a re-read of Michel Foucault and his impressive but controversial 1965 study, "Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason", is in order.
Or one can just go with the flow.