the conversation

The Conversation | Pedro Barbeito | 2004

The image, with kind permission from Pedro Barbeito, being used for the youtheatre's next 'made', 'devised', 'created' piece:

THE CONVERSATION (April 2012)

Below, an extract from: Dialogues for a New Millennium

(click for the whole interview):

"From the beginning of history people have been trying to represent the world through pictures. Before photography, painting was the principal medium with which the world and its history were documented. We are all well aware of the liberties taken by artist and patron in that regard. The images left behind are what now define those moments in time. It only makes sense that photography would follow suit. Photography was initially seen as a more factual way of recording the world, the representation resulting from a chemical process. It turns out that from its inception, photography has been used to manipulate reality; there was the initial belief that photographs were factual documents, allowing for the ruse to progress more easily. In our daily lives we attempt to change our appearance so we may look more attractive, less attractive, younger, more threatening, thinner… Photography is an extension of how we want to see the world and how we desire to be seen in it.

The overflow and saturation of imagery in our current information age has only added to the competitive side of image making - how does one capture the attention of an audience? Whether it’s the news, entertainment or selling cosmetics, one has to try to visually differentiate oneself from one’s competition in order to maintain interest. Online this involves static images competing with moving images. The ads in magazines and newspapers that we once half glanced at or skipped entirely are now mobile online and even come at us with sound; a form of virtual Times Square, where every square inch of pixilated space competes, with lights and music, for our attention.

We can look at images of the war in Iraq in The New York Times and we can also look at different images of the same incidents on the Al Jazeera website. This cross examining of events and of commercial products that’s available to us allows for a greater truth than was available 50 years ago; we end up just having to search deeper for it."

PEDRO BARBEITO