photos and life
Yesterday I looked through old Life magazines from the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was at one of those flea markets down south of town. One of those places that have antique furniture mixed with porcelain roosters, mass market paperbacks, cheap plastic crap from ten years ago, and about a million other things.
I was pretty immersed in these over-sized Life magazines, looking at articles and advertisements and sinking into that era, at least as depicted in popular media of the time. There were articles about famous models and actresses, ads for vodka and television sets. And articles about the war in Vietnam.
Do current magazines ever have stories about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? I know television every night has some soldier on some show, talking about how they are a great spouse and a loving parent and then there is an American flag waving in the background. But never anything about the actual wars. Just feel-good propaganda.
One issue I was flipping through had a photo essay of the US war in Vietnam. One photograph stuck out for me. It showed a small area covered with the prone bodies of dead Vietnamese, killed by Americans. Three officers were standing off to one side. One Vietnamese looked like he was 15 and his eyes were open, staring off into the sky that you couldn't see in the picture. Most of the bodies looked like they were just asleep or something--there weren't visible wounds--but one person close to the right-hand bottom corner of the photo had a large portion of his head blown away.
In an advertisement in a different issue, two white men in suits and ties with partners in dresses were floating in space drinking vodka.
I was pretty immersed in these over-sized Life magazines, looking at articles and advertisements and sinking into that era, at least as depicted in popular media of the time. There were articles about famous models and actresses, ads for vodka and television sets. And articles about the war in Vietnam.
Do current magazines ever have stories about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? I know television every night has some soldier on some show, talking about how they are a great spouse and a loving parent and then there is an American flag waving in the background. But never anything about the actual wars. Just feel-good propaganda.
One issue I was flipping through had a photo essay of the US war in Vietnam. One photograph stuck out for me. It showed a small area covered with the prone bodies of dead Vietnamese, killed by Americans. Three officers were standing off to one side. One Vietnamese looked like he was 15 and his eyes were open, staring off into the sky that you couldn't see in the picture. Most of the bodies looked like they were just asleep or something--there weren't visible wounds--but one person close to the right-hand bottom corner of the photo had a large portion of his head blown away.
In an advertisement in a different issue, two white men in suits and ties with partners in dresses were floating in space drinking vodka.
Labels: current events, ephemera
posted by matt iv at 7:24 AM
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