Epic Fail



Resolutions have been abundant lately. Naturally. In all honestly, I'm not one for this type of thinking.

I created this image for a paper I wrote in the summer. I wrote it on the dichotomy of the meaning of "epic fail" (admit it - you've used it too) and the contrasting (and notably insignificant) personal prose that people purposely attached to it. The image is of Haiti, many months after the earthquake in 2010 that, by then, everyone had forgotten simply because rebuilding a country over a long period of time is less catastrophic and newsworthy than seeing lives destroyed within minutes. As though devastation has an expiration date.

This is one of the first images that I created that induced a visceral reaction from the few people I showed. Mostly of disgust.

But out of apprehension, I retired the image once I submitted the paper. I never showed it again. But I have learned, since then, to become unabashed about showing my work.

I do not have a political agenda, nor do I intend to exploit devastation. The media does that just fine. My only intent is to make people pause and think, and to not simply accept what is spoon fed to them. 

Whether you dig resolutions or not, I urge you, above all else, to be present and critique what you see. Listen to your instincts and be brave in whatever form that takes for you.

For me, that probably means accepting some backlash for what imagery I present. I'm perfectly okay with that as long as it creates discussion.

Note: I pulled the photograph from the Flickr creative commons that I, shamefully, no longer have the credit for.