Quote: Stefan: "It doesn't fit with anything photographic"
Auri Sacra Fames, or the "holy lust for gold," also rendered the "accursed lust for gold," I think, does fit well with art & photography. A man's struggle to balance his life is in conflict with the powerful distractions which are expressed in your quotation. And the pictures, as
Wolfshire so eloquently states, capture the struggle.
Remember, of course, "gold" here is just a metaphor--its true meaning is anything men lust for, anything which drives them out of balance, anything which inspires insatiable lust. That "gold" could be the thirst for fame, the longing for money, or any material possession which distracts men from their true purpose.
Quote: Stefan: I was thinking of how human cravings seem to be abnormal means of survival: abnormal, because they turn against humanity itself (and, I'm afraid, the human species, in the long run).
YES--my point too!
For example,
INSIGHTS: Auri Sacra Fames Quote: Stefan: there is something primitive in them... I find this primitivism reminiscent of that of the prehistoric cave drawings in Spain and France. It relates to the Id, not to the (super-)ego.
You are correct, our superego (as conceived by Frued) is a later development in mankind, and a higher level--perhaps consciouness itself? "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," or man, at the individual level, undergoes a transformative process reflective of the transformation of man at the species level.
*note* my use of the word men here is inclusive; I mean women too.