King of culture

What is a world without an Icon of culture? If in the West (america) every option to play black and white, beat it into a thriller and any opportunity to spin a mix of Michael Jackson has become the ritual de jour. Whether in a car radio of a sixteen year old or that of a 5O something the tribute rocks on. Was the death of John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix as global, permiating and resonating in the 70s or 80s? Did Warhol reach so many? This editor thinks not. Feel free to comment

Female Icons - Fawcett and Bourke-White on film

With the passing of Farrah Fawcett, known for her iconic role in 'Charlie's Angels' and to some known for her starring role in the Schiller movie "Bourke-White", it's important to reflect how female icons are nested in our culture. For those who are not aware, Fawcett, who was 62 and a common staple for boys to men looking for a poster pin up in the 70s, became an icon for mostly the sexy and stunning persona she displayed in front of the camera. She was the blonde bombshell that was incredibly sexy, tall and shapely.

Of course, the persona that she gained from Charlie's Angels made it difficult for the audience to see her in other roles. After she left the series, she starred on Broadway, other made-for-TV productions, and Hollywood films including the biography of photographer, Margaret Bourke-White, who was the first photographer for FORTUNE Magazine and one of the first four photographers of LIFE Magazine.

While the film was less than a blockbuster, it is one of the few that attempted to do two leading ladies justice related to their careers. By casting Fawcett as the "Mother of Modern Photojournalism", the actress was effectively finding a way out of her stereotypical style that the 70s had cast her to. One scene from the movie actually featured Bourke-White (Fawcett) shooting the historic photographs of Gandhi as he protested British power in India and the cast system. While educational and mildly entertaining, the film ultimately did not break the grip that culture had for Fawcett.

Fortunately so. Fawcett became the "mother" of pop-culture inspiration that change flat hair into big, put Texas women on the map and left an indelible mark in trades like Playboy. No she was not the first female to pose twice for career changing publications but she was the strength out of political malaise and daze found in the 70s and 80s. Fawcett became your locker inspiration or the inspiration for the girl standing next to you in school to use a blow dryer. Fawcett became the style consultant for most big hair photographs found in the 70s. Farrah Fawcett, while not accepted as an intelligent actress (similar to Anna Nicole, Marilyn, Pam and others), gave most women a subtle kick to be amazing in their own right. Bourke-White would have enjoyed shooting Fawcett.

She is survived by her son, Redmond, born in 1985; her long-time
companion, Ryan O'Neal.

Tiananmen Square and The Iconic Image

What would Jeff Widener, a renowned photojournalist, say to the man whom his photograph immortalized? In the iconic image, the Chinese citizen, whose fate to this day is unknown, blocks the path of a procession of tanks in what remains a defining moment of the June 5th, 1989 Tiananmen Square aftermath. “I would ask him,” says Widener, “what finally carried him over the top emotionally? Had he lost a loved one in the military crackdown? Was it a planned case of defiance or had he just been broken down to the point that he no longer feared for his own personal safety?”

If not for the photographs, that of Widener along with the other journalists present that day, the man’s signal act of defiance might have been lost along with much else of the historical record, as the Chinese government sought to whitewash the fact of the six-week student-led protest, to propagate amnesia in the name of nationalism. But Widener happened to be there, one beat photographer among many, risking life and limb to capture events as they happened, and it was his image that the AP ultimately picked up, soon to be seared into minds around the globe.

Roger Cohen of the NY Times recently quoted Chinese researcher Shi Guoliang in the observation that, “students [at Beijing’s China Youth University for Political Sciences] don’t do sit-ins, they blog and use Twitter.” Faced with a vastly improved economic prognosis, Chinese youth twenty years later seem content to keep their dissident thoughts anonymous on the margins of the internet. Yet the power of Widener’s image abides, one individual standing over and against the iron fist of oppression, in a country where individualism has no ostensible platform.

Will that change? “You will see such images used more and more to make political statements as well as increase social awareness for all of us as humans,” says Widener. In ways obvious and subtle. Widener considers an image of Pope John Paul II stifling a yawn during a ceremony at St. George’s Cathedral in London, to be among his most revealing, “the human side of a great man.”

Great man or no, the anonymous Chinese citizen may have made a more resonant statement. As of April 29, 2009, The National reports that government censorship of English language accounts of the 1989 Tiananmen protests have been eased for the first time in mainland China.

About Jeff Price: Price is a New York based writer whose professional works focus on culture, politics and the big city lifestyle.