These two large-format images were in the concluding photosequence for Push Process until the last minute, both of them near the beginning in the section dealing with looking and the commodification of spectacle. (For this theme, see the video at the end of the post.)
The first was taken at the exact position from which everyone photographs the Bridge of Sighs, but with the camera turned about seventy-five degrees to the left: this decision was itself a kind of joke. The sculpture that is the focus of the composition depicts the Drunkenness of Noah: the Biblical patriarch (foreshortened on the left side) is making a spectacle of himself after overindulging, and his sons respond differently. One highlights his father’s shame: ‘Look at this disgusting old man!’ The other averts his eyes in filial piety and makes to cover Noah’s nakedness.
It’s also an unusual example of a high-key, low-contrast night scene.
Still, it felt a bit too conventional, and I was trying to minimise the number of conventional images of the city.
The second image is of a fairground ride with a Wild West theme: the triangular object in the centre is supposed to be a wigwam. This kind of grossly simplistic historical representation is only possible: a) because it’s a ride for children; and b) because we are a long way from any context in which anyone has an ongoing stake in the terms of this presentation. But in its crude way it’s still a spectacular commodification of history, and moreover an interactive one – and it therefore serves to emphasise how the current iteration of Carnival does much the same thing with Venetian history.
But I'm not entirely convinced by it as an image.
Also: the fact that both these images require a lengthy explanation to justify their possible inclusion worked against them.
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