Molotov Man

The article on the Molotov Man was interesting. I had never thought about the dangers of pulling things from it's context, and reappropriating them somewhere else. But, likewise, even the person photographing is taking someone else's life moment and putting it out into the world for them. The photographer was concerned about the value of the photograph and it's cultural meaning being lost, but she took it and put it out there. The artist did nothing wrong. Sure, she might have been right to say that the meaning of the Molotov Man was lost in our culture (as a Pepsi Product, an art show, a cool Icon or desktop graphic), but she isn't seeing the big picture. By recontextualizing these images, artists are able to reveal things that might otherwise never have been seen. They create new messages from the images they use. The photographer was worried about the loss of the struggle, of the Molotov Man's struggle, but at the same time, by looking at how the image is brought into our culture, it says just as much about who WE are and who the MOLOTOV MAN was at the same time. It's important to know where the image originated from to understand it, but you also need to realize why and how we are using it as a society to understand it's true significance.