Disturbing Image - Give me your thoughts

[The Rev]

I was reading the thread about the 4-year old gunman in the Patch, and went looking for a funny image I saw once of a baby reaching for a handgun (don't ask). Anyway, I found THIS image, instead, and was a bit disturbed by it (I think it's photoshopped, but I can't tell).

Anyway, I was wondering what your impressions were, because the pic can be read any number of ways. It can speak to qualities of innocence as easily as potential tragedy, if you choose to look at it that way.

Tell me what you think.

:D

The Rev

[colorful]

*shudders*

Some people out there are seriously disturbed.

[Richard]

Bowling for Columbine...

To me, the photo shows "America"... A country full of guns, fear, racisms, big Macs and big people... a government that murders hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraq children, supports war efforts in Israel and the genocide of thousands of innocent Palestinians, - and after publicly announcing this - half the country cheers in the streets when viewing the devastation...

I don't think its a bad photo... I think people need to see it and think about the direction of their country... Terrorism is not real (its just a noun)... peace is real...




Tell me what you think.

:D

The Rev

[Formerbaboon]

:no: Oh hell naw.

[Astarte]

Gah! :no:

It's hard to detect any photoshopping at that size, though giving it just a glance I can't see any signs of it and I've been using that program professionally since I was 15.

Looks like a sick situaton to put a baby in, and to me it has the ring of attempted humour rather than a cautionary image. I hope it is faked, or at least that it was intended as a lesson.

[vggiegirl]

There were some Stooges episodes where they give a baby a gun as a pacifier.
Just mentioning for no particular reason.

*Stooges geek out

[Azalea]

Bowling for Columbine...
To me, the photo shows "America"... A country full of guns, fear, racisms, big Macs and big people... a government that murders hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraq children, supports war efforts in Israel and the genocide of thousands of innocent Palestinians, - and after publicly announcing this - half the country cheers in the streets when viewing the devastation...


Uhm. Let's not demonize, shall we? :evil:

[newstars]

Uhm. Let's not demonize, shall we? :evil:

That's his opinion. He was asked for it. :-/

Interesting picture though. Kinda humourous in a twisted way. A tool of death in the possession of a new life. I won't read much into it though. It could mean a thousand things.

[mouse]

Looks like a sick situaton to put a baby in, and to me it has the ring of attempted humour rather than a cautionary image. I hope it is faked, or at least that it was intended as a lesson.

I agree.

[Kurmudgeon]

I laughed. Was that wrong?

[Formerbaboon]

I'd like to know what asshole made that.. wait, maybe he/she was trying to make a point. I don't know..

[Azalea]

That's his opinion. He was asked for it. :-/


He is of course completely entitled to share his opinion. :)

But please allow allow me to react to a (imho!) very extreme one-sided image.

My apologies if I came through as rude.

[AccidentalVeg]

It makes me think of the lose your cool "meme" and how much of it we are seeing this week. The Brian Nichols case which was horrific.

The Wisconsin hotel bloodbath. Awful.

And then a Dallas man opening fire on another vehicle through the sun roof of his car and killing three.

Now these are just the heinous ones. The ones that made the news. People die or are badly wounded daily in America and around the world by guns but the picture made me think of the peculiar and very much "American" style of losing it like a Hollywood action movie. Taking out everything and everyone around you. The scorched earth equivelant of social commentary.

I think of the Washington Sniper. I think of Columbine. I think "What have we become that guns are not tools for hunting or defense, they are tools for offense. For making a statement in carnage and ruined bodies. Why is that?"

What does it say about us as a culture that though we have no war here at home, we can find ourselves ducking bullets in the most ordinary of settings? Where does this kind of desperation for attention begin and how do we end it?

d

[renaissancesun]

Yuck. I can appreciate, or at least understand, any number of points it could be trying to make, but the visual is too much for me.

Sick.

[Vicky]

i think it's an awesome picture, i wish it was better quality.
As long as the gun is fake i don't see a problem with this photo at all, if i knew for sure that it was real then i would probably freak out...
seriously i think it's great photo, and a photograph of a pregnant woman shooting heroin is a lot more disturbing

[crystalteacup]

I just hope it's a fake gun.

[newstars]

He is of course completely entitled to share his opinion. :)

But please allow allow me to react to a (imho!) very extreme one-sided image.

My apologies if I came through as rude.

Nevermind me, I'm half-polish :-/

[Marie]

I just hope it's a fake gun.

A real gun would probably be too heavy for a baby.

[Blue Plastic Straw]

I guess I'm weird, but I don't find it partictiularly disturbing and I don't really see how it makes a difference if it's a fake gun or real or if the picture is made with Photoshop. It obviously doesn't depict a real life situation, but one contrived to a specific end. I can see the shock factor that was the object, and I wonder at the message that is being conveyed. I got a bit of what Richard was talking about (minus the overwrought retoric), the gun as a symbol of violence and the scene as one of a society suckled or even pacified by violence.

[The Rev]

Suckling at the teet of death. Didn't think of that when I first saw it. "My gun, my mommy?" Scary!

:worried:

The Rev

[DannyKass]

I think its quite an ironic picture.

The baby is innocent, whilst the gun is anything but.

I'm guessing the point is to be shocking, and show that there is little innocence in a gun.

[kentauros]

While I haven't been using Photoshop professionally, I have been using it off and on for about 5 years, mostly for photomorphs. And the biggest problems in doing believable photomorphs is matching different images into one image. Things like image-quality, lighting and shadows all work against you if any bit of that is wrong.

In the case of this image, the gun is slightly more blurry than the baby. There is little to no detail visible on the gun compared to the baby, and the highlights and shadows on the gun don't match those of the baby, even though the baby photo was probably made with soft-focus strobes (so no sharp or high contrast shadows.) As it has also been pointed out, the baby probably would not be able to hold up a real gun.

To me, the image is faked. It also doesn't bother me, especially knowing that. I've seen far worse things out there. Remember the faked image of the guy on the top of the WTC buildings? Of course, those got better as people 'shopped him into other places and realities :lol:

[SilverC]

I laughed. Was that wrong?
I laughed too. :evil:

[Brandon]

I think its quite an ironic picture.

The baby is innocent, whilst the gun is anything but.

I'm guessing the point is to be shocking, and show that there is little innocence in a gun.

Your take on it was very similar to mine, DK. I immediately thought of the yin/yang symbol. Innocence, and new life in direct visual contrast with violence and life ending.
I'd wager that this pic (fake or not) is indeed intended on a certain level to produce a strong reaction.

[bethanie]

Our culture seems to have some serious problems.

B