Nou
şi vechi în 1928
New and Old in 1928
see
also
Automobilul şi măgarul (The Motorcar and the... Ass)
The two photos seem to act as the two consecutive
times/strokes of the same movement.
The first photo shows us a man riding a donkey and
having entered a gas station, within the gas pumps’
area, where he seems to wait for something.
Apparently, nothing to justifies its presence within
such space. Yet, a more detailed look at the image
reveals another two diachronic objects: a funnel and
a bottle.
The second photo, which has been taken within the
premises of the same gas station, enriches the
meaning of the first photo. The man on the donkey
holds the bottle in his hand, thus reminding us that
gas stations used to stand for retail trade shops.
Therefore, the second image seems to justify the
first one but at the same time its meaning grows
more and more independent. Its composition is denser
and it relies on the play of the glances.
In this second image, everybody is aware that a
photo is being taken. They all look straight to the
camera, yet expressing different things. The owner
of the donkey has noticed only the presence of the
photographer, ignoring the men in the car. He thinks
that only the photographer looks at him and he
displays the innocent happiness of someone who is
striking a pose. The two men sitting on the back
seat of the car do look to the photographer, but
their look to the camera is actually an
attitude-look towards the man on the donkey. Their
eyes express a judgment they make, they sanction a
presence within a space where it does not belong,
thus sanctioning a difference. The men in the car
see the world in a certain way and they want the
photographer to capture their looking at the world
exactly in the way they do. The dominant art of
living always breathes beyond its representatives.
By their clothing as well as by their car, the two
men communicate their social identity and display
their symbolic power.
Similarly to the ones sitting on the back seat, the
driver reacts as if he were surprised by the
photographer as a looking eye (most certainly
towards the man on the donkey; and he probably
hears- since he cannot see – the reaction of the men
behind him). He is the only one who shows a serious
attitude. Should we interpret it as compassion?
The photographer is the one who by means of his act
(“his doing”) determines a change of state. He plays
the role of an addressee, of the one who
manipulates. Yet, such manipulation is not done on
purpose.
By recreating the relationship between the two
images, we may state that whereas the first photo
surprises the concomitance of the elements thus
framed within the paradigm of the new and of the
old, the second photo reveals the same elements by
also rendering obvious the attitude of the new
towards the old.
