Martha Rosler Quotes

• The exposé, the compassion and outrage, of documentary fueled by the dedication to reform has shaded over into combinations of exoticism, tourism, voyeurism, psychologism and metaphysics, trophy hunting - and careerism.

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  Martha Rosler

  Compassion   Dedication   Hunting  

  Martha Rosler (2004). “Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001”, p.178, MIT Press

  3890

• The question at hand is the danger posed to truth by computer-manipulated photographic imagery. How do we approach this question in a period in which the veracity of even the straight, unmanipulated photograph has been under attack for a couple of decades.

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  Martha Rosler

  Couple   Hands   Computer  

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• Photography [can] be seen as a system of representation that you bring to bear on other systems.

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  Martha Rosler

  Photography   Bears   Representation  

  1735

• So much of my work involved the Vietnam War that it would have been obscene to show it in a gallery. But now, it’s different; it’s important to remember and to enable the young to discover what to some of us is still so present.

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  Martha Rosler

  War   Important   Different  

  1268

• I was concerned with something like the notion of 'language speaking the subject,' and with the transformation of the woman herself into a sign in a system of signs that represent a system of food production, a system of harnessed subjectivity.

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  Martha Rosler

  Subjectivity   Transformation   Language  

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• Just going out on a foray to assemble a collection of street trophies about this or that running social sore can't be effective - and never was.

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  Martha Rosler

  Running   Going Out   Trophies  

  4579

• Take the Money and Run? Can Political and Socio-Critical Art ‘Survive’?

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  Martha Rosler

  Running   Art   Political  

  1557

• Documentary is a little like horror movies, putting a face on fear and transforming threat into fantasy, into imagery. One can handle imagery by leaving it behind. (It is them, not us.)

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  Martha Rosler

  Leaving   Littles   Faces  

  Martha Rosler (2004). “Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001”, p.179, MIT Press

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• How useful are documentary photographs if there is no follow up, no way of knowing what happened next in the story?

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  Martha Rosler

  Knowing   Stories   Way  

  4565

• Are we asserting the easy dominion of our civilization over all times and all places, as signs that we casually absorb as a form of loot?

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  Martha Rosler

  Civilization   Dominion   Easy  

  Martha Rosler (2004). “Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001”, p.270, MIT Press

  356

• Any familiarity with photographic history shows that manipulation is integral to photography.

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  Martha Rosler

  Photography   Manipulation   Shows  

  Martha Rosler (2004). “Decoys and Disruptions: Selected Writings, 1975-2001”, p.262, MIT Press

  4069

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