Worldwide Propaganda

Well, I guess I should say something about a bunch of recent activity going on over at the ol’ photoblog.  Recently a person has taken offense at a caption that I wrote on one of my pictures, this picture in fact:

http://lucashutmacher.com/2009/05/20/05-20-2009-fire-hippies-i/?info=on#info

It’s not necessary to read through the entire list of comments to realize that the person in this picture goes by the street name of Karma and she earns her money slingin’ fire for the Vesuvius Tribe  (according to her comment on here & my Facebook fan page).

The list of issues in debate are many and somewhat difficult to follow, but I’ll list them out & address them as I see fit.  Then everyone can repost this on their Facebook pages or Google Wave pages and have nice long discussions about different ways you’d like to ‘teach me a lesson’.  Here they are:

1.        Getting’ High.  There are several perceived sub-texts here, but they’re basically all something like these:  The person in this picture is high.  The people in this troupe are high.  This person does drugs.  The people in this troupe do drugs.

2.       Art or Not.  Like above, several sub-plots:  I know nothing about art.  I’m closed-minded.  Making statements of harm on people is not art, nor is it ‘cool’.  That through my ‘misleading, ignorant and demeaning descriptions on photos you’ve taken of bands, dancers and fire performers’ …..’you do not intend to share the beauty of the moment, you are only spreading negativity with your work’

3.       Slander.  I’m slandering Ms. Karma.

4.       I don’t know my fire twirling gadgets.

5.       Fire Dancing is lame. (apparently this is a reader submitted debate, based on the last 15 comments on the page)

Now, before I get into this, I should say that I haven’t written anything longer than a paragraph in years, so this will probably be pretty painful to read due to my poor grasp of proper writing skills.

So here we go.

Getting High

All of these different versions of the same accusation center around an extremely important (and unfortunately overlooked) aspect of this discourse: the fact that I did not make a single notation of anyone being high when this picture was shot, getting high and performing or doing any drugs when the troupe wipes the face paint off and relaxes.  The caption simply said this “Don’t play with fire and get high.”  The accusations of me accusing Ms. Karma of any sort of drug use came in the first comment, and he was simply asking “If anyone sees this and thinks they would do such a thing as handle fire while intoxicated please contact me.”  I do not know, so I did not contact him.  Nor did I think it necessary for me to comment on his question.  Seems pretty straightforward if you ask me.  NOW, I should say that if someone decides to misread the caption in question, then you’re just jumping to conclusions and I cannot help much, other than to suggest some online schooling that could assist in grammar & logic.

Also, I believe I would be remiss if I didn’t address this specific quote from Ms. Karma:   “What you have done, will affect so many aspects in my life. I have worked my ass off at what I do and would NEVER do what you so rudely put! This could seriously damage my opportunities for employment! I’m divorced with 2 children, homeless, and unemployed other than rare fire gigs….”

I spent the last 30 minutes trying to get a search combination using your name (Karma – which YOU provided when you posted a comment) with any combination of my name, drugs, Vesuvius, Fire Hippies and High and the only search that returned any results within the top five pages of Google’s search results included  ’Lucas Hutmacher, Fire Hippies, High’ and ‘Lucas Hutmacher, Fire Hippies, Drugs’.  When I added your name to the search (Lucas Hutmacher, Karma, Fire Hippies etc), the pages actually went LOWER in the search results.  Not ONCE did your name appear in the results as a ‘highlighted word’ (aka – ‘snippet’) and when I added the word ‘High’ the search results.

I don’t know what you want to do with that information, but it just seems like a possible knee-jerk reaction on your end by making the assumption that having a picture of you twirling fire with a caption referencing drugs would show up on the front page of the KC Star.

Art or Not.

This seems to be a big one and I think the first thing I should point out is that on no place on my site do I state that these pictures are art.  If you check the tag ‘art’, all you’ll really find is a bunch of pictures of other peoples art, art galleries etc.

Now, whether or not THIS picture is art or not, I cannot be the judge because I’m not an art judger person.  Personally, I think it’s a bit ‘noisy’, a bit heavy on the reds and there is no nipple visible anywhere.  Therefore – not art.

However, it seems to me that the question of art really hasn’t been centered around the picture as much as it has been centered around the caption, or rather the captions on my website (‘artists’ call this their ‘artistic interpretation’ and no one ever questions them, mainly because, well, 99% of them are stupid discussions about today’s society and human function and make absolutely no sense) .  Well, luckily, since we’ve already established that the content of this site is not art in any way, that shouldn’t be an issue.  However I suspect that that won’t be good enough.  So how to proceed, how to proceed… ok, let’s try this:

That through my ‘misleading, ignorant and demeaning descriptions on photos you’ve taken of bands, dancers and fire performers’ …..‘you do not intend to share the beauty of the moment, you are only spreading negativity with your work.‘

Wow, I really couldn’t have said that better myself!  In fact, I didn’t say that, someone else did, but it was in reference to my work (again – the captions I assume, since the pictures are DOPE).  You want to hear what it’s like to be demeaning and ignorant?  You’ve obviously come to the right place.  But the thing is, unfortunately for the rest of the world that stupid BILL OF RIGHTS says I can be (misleading, ignorant, etc).  I have the open and free right to basically say things like ‘this band sucks’ and ‘this hipster really smelled bad’ and ‘the only reason I’m here is that I hope you catch your dreadlocks on fire’.  The fact that you are a single mother, are unemployed and are homeless does not mean you get access to a Bill of Rights with 11 amendments and I have access to only 9.

Now the burden falls to you, the ‘reader of my pictures’ (since it is a photography site) to determine how you should react and how serious you should take me.  Here’s a free hint – if you get upset by what I say – you’re taking it too seriously.  I mean come on people; you can’t walk around dressed like extras on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean and not expect to get a little ribbing.  Ren-fest people have gotten used to it, drummers have gotten used to it, D&D players have gotten used to it. Dog show people had a damn movie made about THEM.  (Though I should note – the Taliban have NOT gotten used to it).

As to the rest of the quote : ‘you do not intend to share the beauty of the moment, you are only spreading negativity with your work.’  It seems to me that I’m just offering a different perspective on things that other people do.  It may come across as negative six or seven times a week, but a lot of people seem to think that it’s at the least funny  from time to time, and as my dad used to say – ‘In this house, if it’s funny, you’re not in trouble’.  I doubt that’d hold up in court, but still, the point is this – your lack of being able to laugh at the absurdity of the things around you will make you a bitter person, and there is no reason that it shouldn’t go beyond making fun of people who live in the suburbs and drive luxury SUVs.  Bring it home!  Make fun of hipsters and their funny glasses!  They like the attention.

In the case of this picture, you’re out in public entertaining people and when you’re in the entertainment industry, you have to put up with a certain amount of criticism and you’re forcing me to utter some words that I honestly never thought I would say, but you people could learn a lot from Brittney Spears.   They publish pictures of her throwing up into a Wendy’s bag & you don’t hear anything from her.  If you play with fire, I would have assumed thicker skin.

Speaking of other artists/musicians, just because someone lets you plug your guitar into the wall at a bar, doesn’t necessarily make you worth the cover charge and it doesn’t mean I should start an internet campaign to get your ten-minute intro included as the ‘inspirational’ music theme for the next sequel of ’28 Days Later’.  While there are several artists in this city that are well worth the time and money, there are just as many that are probably not worth the time and money, and you should not be condemning everyone that is a less-than-active supporter.  That is elitist, snobbish, stupid and worthy of Fox News status.  I have horrible music and art tastes and if you’re using this site for recommendations of that sort, you should seek help, and if you’re in one of those bands and wondering what ‘Lucas Hutmacher Photography’ thinks of your work, I’ll remind you that I’m a computer nerd with a camera and a WordPress site, so you get what you pay for.

Slander

Well, hmm.  According to the dictionary, slander is “defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing, pictures, etc.”  Well, I have no audio on my site, so I guess we’re cool there.

Wait… did you mean LIBEL?  Well, that would certainly make more sense since.  Since, as I stated above in that AMAZING part about drugs that I didn’t actually say she was doing drugs, it should be pretty self explanatory.  In a way, this blog post should serve as adequate documentation to any potential employer who does a background check by Googling  the words ‘Fire Hippies, Drugs, Lucas Hutmacher is an asshole liar, not-art photography, poorly written captions taken out of context.’

I Don’t Know My Fire Twirling Gadgets

As someone pointed out in this post:

http://lucashutmacher.com/2009/06/02/06-02-2009-fire-hippy-ii/?info=on#info

This gentleman is spinning a staff, not balls.  One slip of the ball-staff and everyone would be toast.

Ok, so it’s a staff.  I’m not proud, but Ms. Karma is correct, I do not know the difference between the shaft and the balls.

Fire Dancing Is Lame

Well, I dunno, I guess as long as it doesn’t keep me from getting into my parking spot, I don’t have a problem with it, though I have to say, not my bag.  There are worse hobbies – smoking, collecting fingernail clippings, Troll Dolls, Star Trek.  But there are probably better hobbies.  To each his own.  But, as I’ve pointed out in most of my fire-related posts – I still believe that the only reason that 90% of the people watching you are people hoping to see a human being on fire.   The same thing is true for many other things – the opportunity to see something go horribly wrong.  How else can you explain the popularity of such a ridiculous things as hockey, Nascar, MMA, monster truck rallies, Faces of Death, speed skating, tightrope walking, bull fighting, or Toddlers & Tiaras?

I also should note that there are obviously people with stronger opinions than me on this subject (see comments 5-29..), and they would gladly provide you with information.

Now, I’ve wrote way more than I probably should have and don’t expect anyone to agree with me on these points.  Arguing art and talent is more or less along the same lines as arguing religion and politics.  If people are still upset, and I suppose they are, I guess I’m just Andy Kaufman & you are all the citizens of Memphis.

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