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Thread: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

  1. #11
    Foamer
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    I wouldn't call it a hoax, but rather a well crafted satire. As for elves, 90% of Icelanders believe in gnomes.



    Kent in SD
    In contento ed allegria
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  2. #12

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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Fromm View Post
    Ari, you're not the hoaxer. Mr. Berkman is.
    Mr. Berkman isn't a hoaxer. This is a consummate combination between conceptual art, photography, and literature, all mysteriously and flawlessly crafted to create a surreal and whimsical whole that pulls me out of my sense of reality into a make-believe world where the 19th century ethos and photographic techniques, Jewish mysticism and a Freudian dream world all meet in Alice's Wonderland. I'm in awe.

    Best,

    Doremus

  3. #13
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    Quote Originally Posted by Doremus Scudder View Post
    Mr. Berkman isn't a hoaxer. This is a consummate combination between conceptual art, photography, and literature, all mysteriously and flawlessly crafted to create a surreal and whimsical whole that pulls me out of my sense of reality into a make-believe world where the 19th century ethos and photographic techniques, Jewish mysticism and a Freudian dream world all meet in Alice's Wonderland. I'm in awe.

    Best,

    Doremus
    I couldn't have said it better.

  4. #14

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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    Ari, Doremus, the man presented the work as not his. Hoax.

  5. #15
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    must
    be

    not

    art
    Tin Can

  6. #16
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    How strange it is ... I find it contrived and overdone. The photographs are sort of nice in themselves, but the story ... it lessens the possible impact of the photographs.

    Maybe it is because I enjoy the possibility of discovering for myself what the photograph in front of me means to me. Words and photographs together is a tricky business to keep in balance.
    "Be still and allow the mud to settle."

  7. #17
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    OK Dan, you win

    I am second gen Norsk

    The Mythology of Norwegian Trolls
    Tin Can

  8. #18
    Unwitting Thread Killer Ari's Avatar
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    My reading was he didn't present the work as anything, except as based on the spotty, incomplete translation of Mr Zohar's journals.
    I'll re-read the story, but I don't remember a con being part of it.
    If anything, it was a very difficult, roundabout way for him to pay tribute to an unknown photographer's work. Yes, there are embellishments and flights of fancy, but these make for a good story.
    There was the person of Shimmel Zohar, and the persona as well, the latter being a creation of Berkman's, which was entirely respectful, if not entirely accurate.

  9. #19
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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    I miss Dagor 77 aka Sir Andrew of Glover

    as he told greaat stories
    Tin Can

  10. #20

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    Re: The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar

    The whole thing is a fantasy invention. Zohar exists only as a fictional character. His quirky biography, photography, studio and subjects are all part of the fantasy-novel-in-reality invented by Berkman. I find the combination of media he uses to bring his character and ideas to life a highly-personal invention, which combines stagecraft with visual arts, literature and, yes, a well-executed con job; all part of the Gesamtkunstwerk.

    Or, I could be wrong, and Shimmel Zohar was in reality an eccentric 19th-century Jewish photographer...

    Zohar Lives!

    Doremus

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