Picture Editors to the Front:
"Do the I-torture!"
[Click on image to enlarge it]
German newspaper: iPod/torture mashup
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung ran this editorial illustration that remixes the Iraqi torture photos with the iPod ads. [BoingBoing] [Apple iPod]
Do the I-torture!
From the relay station of all things culture, i.e. Boing Boing , this photo has been seen in Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about torture. Unbelievable. [LogansLurch]
Ok, bad German aside, I find it interesting that now Germany and America aside (to uncommon degrees, to be sure): we both suffer under international scrutiny for torture camps. But the fact that it has wound up as an ad that is spoofed so quickly and convincingly is amazing to me. Again, unbelievable. [LogansLurch]
It's kind of amusing to see this all with so much background knowledge missing and a language barrier that's only made all the funnier by attempts to overcome it. Just some snippets of information here. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (with its Sunday edition the "Sonntgaszeitung") is Germany's biggest and most influential conservative newspaper. And "entgeistert", I think, translates better into "aghast" rather than "dumbfounded".
But, yes, that this all illustrates fairly well is how powerful visual representations (photos) have become. If somebody had written an article about the torture without any images I bet apart from the "usual suspects" (human rights advocates) nobody would have cared.
Posted by: Joerg | Wednesday, May 12, 2004 at 05:05 PM
Do you know if Apple is featuring the iPod in Germany with the same ad/image as in the US?
Posted by: Phototalk | Thursday, May 13, 2004 at 05:02 PM