Jimi Who?
From Umberto Eco's Travels in Hyperreality on the semiotics of iconic photography:
"The vicissitudes of our century have been summed up in a few exemplary photographs that have proved epoch-making: the unruly crowd pouring into the square during the "ten days that shook the world"; Robert Capa's dying miliciano; the marines planting the flag on Iwo Jima; the Vietnamese prisoner being executed with a shot in the temple; Che Guevara's tortured body on a plank in a barracks." [More...]
The semiotic power of photographs tend to fade after two generations. In the film about paparazzo photographer Ron Galella in "Smash His Camera", there was a young girl at the show that didn't know the identity many of the iconic people in the photographs, such as Henry Kissinger, a semiotic figure of the Nixon era.
It is probably now common for some younger people to see a photo of Jimi Hendrix and not know who he is, beyond the caricature.
We still need descriptions, captions and other context to fill in the gaps.
(If you notice towards the end of the clip, it's David Bowie and Iman. They'll never be forgotten.)
"The vicissitudes of our century have been summed up in a few exemplary photographs that have proved epoch-making: the unruly crowd pouring into the square during the "ten days that shook the world"; Robert Capa's dying miliciano; the marines planting the flag on Iwo Jima; the Vietnamese prisoner being executed with a shot in the temple; Che Guevara's tortured body on a plank in a barracks." [More...]
The semiotic power of photographs tend to fade after two generations. In the film about paparazzo photographer Ron Galella in "Smash His Camera", there was a young girl at the show that didn't know the identity many of the iconic people in the photographs, such as Henry Kissinger, a semiotic figure of the Nixon era.
It is probably now common for some younger people to see a photo of Jimi Hendrix and not know who he is, beyond the caricature.
We still need descriptions, captions and other context to fill in the gaps.
(If you notice towards the end of the clip, it's David Bowie and Iman. They'll never be forgotten.)
