美国国家公共电台 NPR 3 Photographers Who Captured The Undersides Of Life

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

Photographs taken over the course of 50 years are on view in Los Angeles. Three different photographers captured stunning¹ and shocking and provocative² images. And then a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art found connections among the pictures. NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg explains.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE³: We snap a selfie with the tap of a finger. We're used to preserving smiling moments. The MOCA show goes to darker places with the work of three major photographers - Brassai, a French-Hungarian who made his reputation revealing secret Paris nights between the wars, Diane Arbus, American, who said in the '60s, I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them, and Nan Goldin, another American, who stunned⁴ the 1980s with her series "The Ballad⁵ Of Sexual Dependency." All three picture takers are revolutionary, photographing with profound intimacy⁶ the undersides of life.

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STAMBERG: In nighttime Paris, Brassai stalked the underworld - brothels, streetwalkers - but at MOCA, a happy night at an Afro-Caribbean club in Montmartre. Blacks and whites smoke together, sip⁷ Perrier or stronger stuff, dance.

LANKA TATTERSALL: They're having a great time. And then there's this one woman on the left-hand corner that I just find so striking.

STAMBERG: Curator Lanka Tattersall.

TATTERSALL: She's wearing this white hat that's just off to the side, a kind of kerchief hat, and she's staring directly at the camera. And this is the thing that I find so remarkable⁸ in this image. It's taken in 1932. She's looking at Brassai, and she's very aware of her image being taken by this photographer.

STAMBERG: It didn't happen that much in those days, people roaming around unannounced, taking your picture.

TATTERSALL: She's probably thinking, you know, this scene is being preserved. I think that's what makes this photograph absolutely contemporary, is an awareness⁹ of what it is to be photographed and to really think about having your image distributed across time and space.

STAMBERG: Thirty years later, American photographer Diane Arbus inherited Brassai's vision. We were used to having our pictures taken by the 1960s, but Arbus' focus was new. In black and white, she documented people on the fringes - giants, bearded ladies, also...

TATTERSALL: People with mental disabilities, people who may have been in institutions, people whose bodies or sexual identities didn't conform with kind of mainstream¹⁰ narrative¹¹ of what it was to be an American.

STAMBERG: She was accused of voyeurism¹², going after what were then called freak shows. But the MOCA curator says Arbus forged relationships with her subjects. Lanka Tattersall sees empathy in these pictures.

TATTERSALL: To me, she's photographing these remarkable individuals who want to be photographed.

STAMBERG: There's an amazing 1969 photo Arbus called "Transvestite At Her Birthday Party."

TATTERSALL: And it's just this, you know, person lying alone on a bed. She's got some balloons tacked¹³ up on the wall. It might just be a two-person birthday party. It might just be Arbus and this one woman. They're having a fabulous¹⁴ time.

STAMBERG: Transgender people also intrigue¹⁵ photographer Nan Goldin. Twenty years after Arbus, Goldin photographs them and gays, lesbians. Hers are the most provocative pictures in the MOCA exhibit. She shows people having sex - friends who let her photograph them having sex. Her camera is part of their scene. Are the pictures invasive?

TATTERSALL: I think they're voracious¹⁶.

STAMBERG: She's exploring relationships - what happens in love and when love goes very wrong. Her self-portrait, "Nan After Being Battered¹⁷ (ph)," 1984, shows the damage Goldin's lover did to her - dark bruises¹⁸ under her eyes, the left eye bloody¹⁹ in her swollen²⁰ face. She looks right at us. The look is uncompromising.

What do you see in that face? Is it anger, revenge?

TATTERSALL: I think there's a chilling way in which she's saying, this is what it looks like to be battered, but this is also what it looks like to take control of your own image.

STAMBERG: Nan Goldin was 31 years old in that photo. One battered eye was nearly blind, but - and - she's painted her lips carefully a bright, bright red.

TATTERSALL: Even if that moment of abuse is one of victimization, there's a way in which she's saying, I am taking my own agency back in this image.

STAMBERG: A lot of rough stuff in this exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles - images and ideas that linger long after you've left the building. They trace how great photographers have used their cameras to make us see, understand or recoil²¹ in the course of half a century. In California, I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

1 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

2 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

5 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

6 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

7 sip   

v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量

参考例句：

• She took a sip of the cocktail.她啜饮一口鸡尾酒。
• Elizabeth took a sip of the hot coffee.伊丽莎白呷了一口热咖啡。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

10 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

11 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

12 voyeurism   

n.窥阴癖者

参考例句：

• Portraiture merges here with voyeurism and surveillance. 肖像拍摄中夹杂着偷窥和监视。 来自互联网
• And while Wife Swap was pure voyeurism, Boss Swap hints at some real issues. 《换妻》纯粹反映了一种偷窥心理，而《互换老板》则影射了一些真实的问题。 来自互联网

13 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

14 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

15 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。

16 voracious   

adj.狼吞虎咽的，贪婪的

参考例句：

• She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
• Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。

17 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

18 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

20 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

21 recoil   

vi.退却，退缩，畏缩

参考例句：

• Most people would recoil at the sight of the snake.许多人看见蛇都会向后退缩。
• Revenge may recoil upon the person who takes it.报复者常会受到报应。