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From Image to Icon

Photographer Alberto  Korda  captured an image of Che Guevera at a funeral of workers in Havana in 1960. Rejected by the editors of the "Revolución",  it hung in his apartment unnoticed for seven years. A few months before Che’s execution, the Italian businessman turned socialist, Feltrinelli requested a picture of Che. Korda gave him his favourite picture.  Within days of Che’s death, Feltrinelli sold millions of Che posters. The following year in 1968, the Irishman, Jim Fitzpatrick, designed the now iconic black-on-red  Che poster. A very average looking man had been turned into a smouldering revolutionary legend, inspiring social activists across generations and nations from Bolivia to Baluchistan.

Allen Ginsberg said ““Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” Marketing and advertising people are well aware of this and use it as the cornerstone of communication and campaign strategies.  However there are many images that never intended to be influential or whose creator had no idea of how far reaching the influence would be. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa remained just one of many paintings  for 300 years until it was stolen from the Louvre  in 1911 not to be returned till 1913. Overnight images were splashed across newspapers that had only recently grown in circulation with faster presses, improved transportation and growing literacy, coinciding with the birth of “hot off the press” journalism. Today it is one of the most known, referenced and used images.  Would Michel Angelo have predicted that of the 5,000 square feet of frescoes he painted in the Sistine Chapel, the most reproduced image would be hands from the image of the creation of Adam?

Most artists are remembered by their work and we rarely know the person behind the artwork. Picasso and Dali were the exception, whose own portraits were influential in establishing the myth of the artist, with  Picasso the “most photographed artist in history”. Philippe Halsman’s elaborately staged portrait of Dali became an art work itself. 

The 60s and 70s saw the dramatic rise of the art of photography, both documenting and defining fashion, lifestyle, music, famous personalities, politics and war. While art remained in the gallery or private collections, photography went everywhere – via newspapers and magazines into every home and across the world.

Many iconic moments were immortalized on camera: The Civil Rights and Hippie movements, the Vietnam war, political events, the Music and Film industry, as well as a new style of portraiture by  photographers  such as Richard Avedon, David Bailey and Annie Leibovitz who continues to be a celebrated photographer.

Personalities themselves can become images - the fashion model, Twiggy, setting the trend of the skinny model; Brigitte Bardot’s rebellious sensuality ; the electrifying Jimi Hendrix; Bob Dylan’s vagabond minstrel image.  Mick Jagger’s lips were immortalized both in photography and the iconic rock “hot lips” logo. The visual impact of Michael Jackson is as influential as his music and is imitated across the world. The Sabri Brothers  defined the public perception of the qawwal  with long tresses, kajal filled eyes and pan stained lips. A whole generation of South Asians emulated Dilip Kumar’s hairstyle, Raj Kapoor’s moustache , Meena  Kumari’s kiss curls – and in our times, the  global desi -“ we are like this only”,  Jiah Ali’s Chaiwala, or the Pakistani grandmother of“bik gai hai yeh gormint” ( this government has sold out)  fame  who now  has her own Che style poster.

Universally accessible, the image is the most generous form of communication. The viewer is not directed by a text, but invited to interpret the image as they will, in the context of their own experiences.

Durriya Kazi
November 11, 2018
Durriyakazi1918@gmail.com





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