Comment and personal thoughts in relation to the title “ American Beauties “

In general I really liked the trip to Hamburg and the exhibition we visited, although it turned out to be the opposite of what I expected from the gallery when I heard the title “American Beauties”. I also thought that the pictues would be painted, but most of the pictures there where photographies.

I think in the hall where the exhibition was, there was a good and calm athmosphere and I liked the idea that you could walk in a circle through the hall by watching the pictures.

There weren´t only pictues on the walls but also some showcases with some old books in it  which was nice and also, that we heard in each corner a little report about the backgrounds of the pictures was a great idea because it helped to understand them.

What I didn´t like was the slide show we watched, because to me, it was a little difficult to understand the story in detail which was told there.

Referring to the title I can say at first I thought the pictures would show us the positive things of America (for example beautiful woman etc.) which would also remind us of the American Dream. But it turned out to be something else, because the pictues showed the spirit of the age of the 50s,60s and 70s for example, which was not always that positive as I expected from the title.

Especially the pictures of Larry Clark pleased me, because they showed very good the poverty of the life in the 60s which was dominated by sex and drougs and completely without a perspective for the future.

There was also the picture which was the most suitable one to me: On the picture, there were two man and a woman, sitting on a bed and injecting heroin. It really made clear that the people there lived in their own world and that they didn´t care anymore about their sourroundings.

The most beautiful picture was the one of the young “woman” who became an model. She turned out to be a man, but on the picture she or he had this special hairstyle, because her hair was just styled in the air. Actually it looked pretty funny but that hair together with her facial expression had something special.

On an other picture then, there was this very fat woman at the beach with a bikini and in a very provocative position. She grinned and somehow this was the most shocking picture to me, because when I saw it I just thought “Whoow, what the hell…!”.

At least, the most interesting picture was the picture of a street of the time of the “Wild West”. It showed a blue sky with some houses made of wood. The typical western “city”. It emanated calm, but also the typical western feeling which you always have when you watch cowboy movies. I found that interesting.

So finally I would say that this was a great day and I hope that we can repeat such a trip beause it was interesting and we also had a lot of fun in Hamburg.

Cheers,

Stefan

Song:

In The Ghetto Lyrics

 » Elvis Presley

As the snow flies,
On a cold and grey Chicago mornin’
A poor little baby child is born in the ghetto
And his mama cries
‘Cause if there’s one thing that she don’t need
It’s another hungry mouth to feed in the ghetto

People, don’t you understand
The child needs a helping hand
Or he’ll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
Are we too blind to see,
Or do we simply turn our heads and look the other way?

Well the world turns
And a hungry little boy with the runny nose
Plays in the street as the cold wind blows in the ghetto
And his hunger burns
So he starts to roam the streets at night
And he learns how to steal
And he learns how to fight in the ghetto

Then one night in desperation
The young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car, tries to run,
But he don’t get far
And his mama cries As a crowd gathers round an angry young man
Face down in the street with a gun in his hand in the ghetto
And as her young man dies,
On a cold and grey Chicago mornin’
Another little baby child is born in the ghetto
And his mama cries
In the ghetto
In the ghetto

Interpretation:

The song deals with the bad circumstances especially in the arenas called “ghettos” and tells the story of the life of a child who was born in the ghetto.