Have you ever stood in a room with two mirrors facing each other, showing your image in an infinite series of reflections? That's a bit of the feeling I get from producer Jake Warga's piece, which documents (and reflects) on the process of being documented.
Usually that experience of documentation places us-- and the audience-- on one side of the mic. Occasionally, as a subject ourselves, it can be disconcerting to realize how our words and images are necessarily taken from us in order to share them with a larger audience.
This piece has the twist of holding up another mirror. By documenting in sound while he is being documented in image, the producer cleverly loops the one-way gaze into a Mobius strip of reflection, or at least refraction. His introduction of a microphone turns them both into subjects and documenters at the same time.
His critiques of a rather staged (though gorgeous) background raise interesting questions of authenticity. How close can the documenter-- and the audience-- get to what's real? What are our ethical responsibilities in how hard we try? And yet he's self-reflective enough to turn the analysis back onto himself, and the craft of radio, with an ending that made me smile.
Comments by Elizabeth Chur
Comment for ""Being Photographed""
Elizabeth Chur
Posted on August 05, 2005 at 10:00 AM | Permalink
Review of "Being Photographed"
Have you ever stood in a room with two mirrors facing each other, showing your image in an infinite series of reflections? That's a bit of the feeling I get from producer Jake Warga's piece, which documents (and reflects) on the process of being documented.
Usually that experience of documentation places us-- and the audience-- on one side of the mic. Occasionally, as a subject ourselves, it can be disconcerting to realize how our words and images are necessarily taken from us in order to share them with a larger audience.
This piece has the twist of holding up another mirror. By documenting in sound while he is being documented in image, the producer cleverly loops the one-way gaze into a Mobius strip of reflection, or at least refraction. His introduction of a microphone turns them both into subjects and documenters at the same time.
His critiques of a rather staged (though gorgeous) background raise interesting questions of authenticity. How close can the documenter-- and the audience-- get to what's real? What are our ethical responsibilities in how hard we try? And yet he's self-reflective enough to turn the analysis back onto himself, and the craft of radio, with an ending that made me smile.