Our Own Light in the Darkness
However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.Stanley Kubrick
The blind leading the blind is a painting by Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel The Elder. Although Bruegel is one of the leading artists whose art subject matter shifted from religious to mundane, this painting originates from the Biblical parable of the blind leaning the blind from the Gospel of Matthew 15:14. Thoroughly composed and accurately detailed, this painting with six figures suffering from different eye afflictions and holding their heads aloft to make better use of their senses, has been a compelling imagery pregnant with metaphors and open to all kinds of interpretations.
This masterwork has inspired artists, writers, poets, and even singers around the world over the time since its birth. Diane Arbus, the famous American contemporary photographer, reproduced this imagery in one of her last body of work, in which a group of people suffering from Down Syndrome walk across the grass fields hand in hand, looking around aimlessly.
The two works are around four hundred years apart, but both came into life at the last stage of their creators’ life. The tempera painting was completed by Bruegel the Elder in 1568, the year before his death. And the “Untitled" series photography by Arbus, which is considered the most comprehensive and most incomplete project, took place in the last three years of her life. Most of the works were exhibited for the first time by her daughter Doon in 1995, twenty-four years after her suicide.
Albeit similar, the painting born out of contemplation and imagination seems to be more powerful and everlasting than what is caught through photography. As time goes by, we understand the root cause to Down Syndrome and find out some patients can accomplish what could not be imagined back in 1971. However, the "blindness" in the painting embodies the metaphor opposite to seeing. Even with a guide dog or technologies that can restore vision, will we not fall? Or is not the history of humankind written by those walking in the dark?
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小菲睁开眼时,感觉身体发虚,没有一点力气,但她的意识正在渐渐清醒过来;她看见屋顶亮着灯,有着淡紫色花卉的瓷砖,白浴缸,一条搭在浴缸边的浴巾,然后,她看见浴缸的水中有丝丝缕缕淡红色的烟雾,极淡极淡的红色,像梦境,透过烟雾,小菲看见自己洁白的身体,像一艘沉船,静静地停在海底的沙滩上,不时有深海的鱼群游过;她听到了一些遥远的声音,是欢笑的声音;然后,她看见水中有摇曳的影像,开始模糊不清,她仔细去看,那影像就渐渐清晰起来,影像的背景是天际间黑色模糊的山脊,灰色草地上一排身穿白袍的智障患者,正相互扶携着,东张西望地走过。顾小菲一阵心痛。她想起来了,这正是她最喜爱的阿勃丝的影像,于是,她想起了黛安,她挚爱的黛安·阿勃丝。
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阿勃丝说:A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less youknow. 照片是关于秘密的秘密,它揭示的越多,你知道的就越少。
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“黛安·阿勃丝(Diane Arbus)出生在一个富裕的犹太家庭,百万富翁。日后她曾经回忆,从孩提时代一直让她倍受折磨的一件事是,她从来没有什么困境。15 岁,遇上了摄影师阿伦·阿勃丝,爱上了他;18 岁,与阿伦结婚,为阿伦生下过两个孩子;开始,她与丈夫一起拍时装;在 34 岁时,她停止了时装摄影,开始了自由拍摄,那时,她已经患上了抑郁症;从 35 岁起,阿勃丝把镜头对向了社会边缘人:疯子,智障,变性人,残疾人,死人,垂死的人,重毛症者,纹身主义者,侏儒,裸体主义者,马戏团,盲乐人,巨人症,拾荒者,双胞胎,三胞胎,黛安说:照片的主题永远要比照片本身来得重要,而且复杂,我在乎的是一张照片是关于什么的?阿勃丝的老师莉赛特·莫德尔曾告诉她:如果你不去拍那些你不得不拍的东西,你就永远不会拍照;40 岁时,父亲去世,她一直守在身旁,并且在父亲死后为他拍下了最后一张照片;阿勃丝每天从早到晚在纽约街头游荡,拍哪些她感兴趣的人,中央公园、42 街、华盛顿广场,她还拍过停尸房、曼哈顿的廉价宾馆、妓院和一些肮脏的小酒吧,她钻过地下水道、听到过屠宰场宰杀牲畜时的嚎叫,曾经与许多她的奇怪的拍摄对象发生过性关系,并且从不避讳谈论这些体验;45 岁之后,她的抑郁症开始变得严重,频繁呕吐,体重下降,情绪极不稳定,在一次谈话中她说:我认为我之所以拍照是因为,如果我不拍这些东西,人们就会视而不见;46 岁时,她与丈夫离婚了,开始喜欢乘坐小型飞机,她说:飞行胜过这个世界上的任何一件事情。她的朋友则说:她在飞行时,好像沉浸在离开这个世界的感觉中。这时,她仍然被抑郁症困扰,她开始接受治疗,但并没有效果,经常早晨四、五点钟就来到街上,去拍那些她认为奇怪的人;在 47 岁,去伦敦拍摄时,拜访了好友亚历克斯夫妇,在聊天时,亚历克斯·简称赞了她的戒指漂亮,她摘下来送给了简,这时简突然有了一种不祥的预感;那一年,纽约现代艺术馆再次展出了阿勃丝的摄影作品,在六十年代初,阿勃丝的作品第一次在纽约 MOMA 展出时,她没有勇气去看自己的展览,艺术馆摄影部的工作人员每天都要擦掉人们往她的照片上吐的口水,那时几乎所有的观众都无法接受她拍的照片,阿勃丝被称为不道德的摄影家;在六十年代中、后期,阿勃丝的作品已经越来越受到重视,并且开始受到公众的欢迎,可是,这让她更加不安,她绝望了,断绝了几乎和所有朋友的联系,她说,她感到自己所寻找的和所得到的正在出现严重的分裂;这就像她的拍摄,那是一种绝对的矛盾;1971 年 8 月初,挚友马文因为一直无法找到阿勃丝,于是闯进她的家中。马文看见,阿勃丝侧卧在浴缸里,割腕自杀了。在她桌子上的日记,最后一页写着:‘最后的晚餐——7月 26 日’,没有人知道‘最后的晚餐’是什么含义?尸检证明:阿勃丝先吞服了大量的盐酸巴比妥,然后切开了双侧的桡动脉。在她遗留的笔记本中,阿勃丝写道:
‘别人的痛苦永远不可能成为你的痛苦。’
7 月 26 日,是阿勃丝 48 岁的生日。现在,阿勃丝已经成为世界上最重要的摄影大师之一。 ”
The Blind Leading the Blind by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Untitled by Diane Arbus