Richard Waters...
I really like the discussion brought up by this quote from Richard Waters, the photographer in the film who stopped the one woman. While I was watching, I really could not believe that he was simply taking pictures rather than anything else (i.e. proactively stopping the person from even climbing over the rail). But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it is an extremely difficult situation to deal with, especially on the Golden Gate. The fact that he saw it as not reality it something almost unreal to bring up, as this ties in with society believing pictures as "snapshots of truth". Moreover, one has to wonder what is considered reality then, for as he looks through his camera, it is truly almost like seeing a film on it (similar to us watching The Bridge itself), and thus, hard to feel that one must react. Should be always be expected to react directly and immediately to issues brought up? No... We usually don't go lead a revolution or uprising after watching a film like Fahrenheit 9/11 (even if Moore wanted us to). So how can it be expected that a man looking through a camera, which is basically film, be expected to act on an act of suicide. In the end, he does help her out and prevent the suicide, which is beyond benig a hero in the situation. In all, the tendency for viewers of films and other media to blur their reality is vast, and therefore, it is difficult for one to distinguish between actual life and the "fake reality" of the media.
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Waters' thoughts hit me profoundly, too, Miheer. Partly I was just struck by how sincere, thoughtful, and honest he seemed to be -- as did most everyone in the film.
ReplyDeleteOne difference between looking through a camera and seeing something on film, of course, is that the film has been manipulated by someone else. But looking through a camera (especially old-school film cameras) is literally like looking through a window. Yet, as Waters says, looking through a camera changes the way we react to the world, whereas, it seems to me, the same would not be true looking through an actual window. If this is true, why might to be so? It kind of blows my mind!