It seems relevant to look to a chapter of America’s past-that of the so-called “Gilded Age” whose unchecked power and monopolies ran most things in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, while seeking out clues to the unsustainable wealth, as well as racial and environmental disparities of the present-day.
“Group Photo: One of the 1001 Nights Costume Party: December 17, 1896”, James Lawrence Breese, American, 1854-1934, Cyan Carbon Print, The Carbon Studio, 1897 from 1896 negative, 22.3 x 27.6 | 35.8 x 50.6 cm & mat with window opening: 25.1 x 29.8 cm. Celebrants attending a costume party close their eyes while being instructed by host, the photographer James L. Breese, seen standing at right. Breese, who might be described as a dandy polymath of the America’s Gilded Age, (photography, race cars, early airplanes as well as other passions) was a stockbroker by profession who ran his Carbon Studio more as a hobby, although it was a paying concern. But social gatherings were also an amusement. His riotous, and sometimes scandalous midnight “1001 night” Salons like this one were gatherings for the New York City elite. The scandal on this occasion? “News” of a distinctly social register kind appeared in the pages of the New York Journal ten days after this photograph was taken: champagne had to be used to extinguish the flaming dress of Mrs. George B. de Forest- “a member of one of the city’s oldest and most aristocratic families”, who “narrowly escaped being burned to death as a result of the exuberant liveliness of the entertainment” in the form of one party goer amusing himself by throwing lit matches into the air. From: PhotoSeed Archive
In defending artistic expression, the history and beauty of past accomplishments: in the form of art, photographs, literature, musical scores, etc. is top of mind in the evolving form of this website. Of course, the transformational technologies that created and maintain the modern internet have made this possible in the first place, but maintaining our Democratic ideals, all within a Constitutional framework- keeps things honest, in check, and crucially- from falling apart.
And yet the mantra of late seems to reward those going really fast, while things have started to break. Asking questions does not seem to figure into certain algorithms- or at least those programmed by a computer. Meanwhile, the ones running the show seem to be closing their eyes while flipping all the switches. What could possibly go wrong? Uncharted for now, but devastating in a most human and personal way for those swept up in the present.
These so-called mandates, earned by our esteemed prophets of commerce in the seeking of the new, belies an absolute absence of what was once known as “wisdom”, at least in what I formerly understood to be the meaning of that word pertaining to government action and sound public policy. I for one am sober to the reality of what I’m looking at. I may not like it, but I’m planning on keeping my eyes open, all the same. I hope you feel similarly, while maintaining vigilance and honesty in calling out the truth staring back at us.
See related: Portfolio: Souvenir of “One of the 1001 Nights”
