Planet Homo

Notes on a commercial

Grainy to a fault, this commercial is currently being shown in theaters across America. At first view is it is difficult to grasp the significance of "Go Forth" a commercial directed by Cary Fukunaga for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland using a poem by Walt Whitman and photographed by Ryan McGinley. The opening image appears to be a sunken, flickering America in either pre-dawn or post nuclear attack. Ryan McGinley goes the way of O. Winston Link, using stark black and white images pitched against a grainy recording of Walt Whitman reciting his poem. The cumulative effect is one of one of despair as children watch the fourth of July in black and white. We can applaud the efforts to be bring something different to the advertising table, but this commercial is nothing less than spooky. In a moment where, for the first time in reality, there is uncertainty about the future, this commercial only reinforces doubt.

Happy Valentine's

Yes it is.

http://www.obviousmag.com/

Photo Found

 "Vinny, an Unloader" (1982).  South Street Seaport Museum
2008.005.0018. Copyright Barbara G. Mensch.

Are you a B Boy?

How the Economy Works

 

Odd things found around my house make for odd props.