My God, Help Me Survive This Deadly Image
Walter Benjamin interprets that “a work of art has always been reproducible” in his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2). The German-Jewish philosopher wrote about the perfecting of image reproduction, through lithography and film. Reproduction of images has now developed far beyond his time, into a near-identical re-creation of the image. With digital-photography, -videography, and -audiography, reproduction quality is completely lossless. Benjamin posits that the “presence in time and space” is irreproducible (3). He calls this phenomenon the ‘aura’ of a work. Reproduction changes the original aura of a work, and creates a new one for the reproduction. There are many forms of reproduction, even just of the creation of a photograph is changing the aura of the original moment to its single moment of capture. Photos are reproduced for the masses, though proliferation on the internet. Photos can also be reproduced for artistic purposes, especially with the advent of digital photo-editing software like Photoshop. Each time the image is reproduced and changed, the aura changes. With each change in aura historical and material context must be examined and analyzed.
On October 4th, 1979 Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, arrived in East Berlin for the 30th anniversary celebration of the German Democratic Republic’s founding as a Communist republic. He met with leaders, made a speech, and on October 5th “signed an economic accord [that day] that will provide East German with Soviet oil, gas and nuclear equipment until 1990 in exchange for ships, tool-making machinery and chemical equipment” (Special to the New York Times). Two days later, during festivities, photographer Regis Bossu captured a moment when Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of the German Democratic Republic, and Leonid Brezhnev engaged in a kiss. This kiss is known as a socialist fraternal kiss, combining the culture of Europe (cheek-kissing) and the connection between Communist countries. (“Socialist Fraternal Kiss”). This greeting had its meaning in the strength of the connection of between the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union. The photograph became a rapidly reproduced image in print.
In 1990 after the fall of the German Democratic Republic, and the Berlin Wall with it, part of the wall was transformed into an open art gallery, the East Side Gallery. Murals and graffiti paintings were put upon these walls. Among the many was Dmitri Vrubel’s mural My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. This mural is a painted representation of the photograph of the Brezhnev-Honecker kiss that was captured by Bossu. The mural as graffiti is not done out of immediate reaction. Leonid Brezhnev had died in 1982. The German Democratic Republic had collapsed and reunited with West Germany. Erich Honecker was in exile and on the run. The Soviet Union was soon to be overthrown as well. Vrubel’s mural, eleven years after the image, was a late response. It re-popularized the image.
The original photograph and graffiti have become an iconic image, resulting in many new re-interpretations. In 2011, The Unhate Foundation, made many photoshopped images of world leaders locking lips. Among them were Hugo Chavez and Barrack Obama, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu, and Kim Jong-il and Lee Myung-bak (“Image Gallery”). During the 2016 election, and after its results, images have been made parodying Trump and other world leaders, including Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Boris Johnson. Each of these parodies are wildly different that Vrubel’s reproduction and Bossu’s original photograph. The Unhate images are of opposing leaders, with long and often violent histories behind them. With Trump parodies there is the context of the immediate reaction towards his campaign. These reproductions have become faster and more relevant in their focus.
The original photo has an extensive history, not just of the 30th anniversary, but the histories of each leader and the histories of each country and the history of Marxism. These histories all influenced the moment and lead to its meaning. When it was captured that meaning was changed and extracted at that singular instance. The photograph’s nature was that to be republished in print. There was not a specific and formal exhibition of the image, but use of it throughout print. An image’s popularity and massive reproduction creates thousands of unique auras for each individual instance someone see the newspaper. “[T]echnical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself” (Benjamin, 4). The context of a Communist household receiving the image and a Capitalist household receiving the image is wildly variant and changes the meaning of the aura. Capitalists would fear the strengthening of the GDR-USSR relationships, while Communists would treasure that strengthened bond. Image’s reproduced for news purposes often lose a specific sense of context, compared to artistic images.
Vrubel’s recreation led to a new framing. His painting had a specific place. It had a specific name as well. All of these framing devices changed the aura of the work. His placement on the Berlin Wall creates immediate emphasis on the German Democratic Republic. While this puts the image in context of history, it is putting it in that specific history. His naming of the piece frames its context as well. My God, Help Me to Survive this Deadly Love frames the image as a representation of ‘deadly love’. Vrubel’s reproduction is negative and its reproduced aura is against the connection between Brezhnev and Honecker and by transitive property, there Union of Soviet Socialist Republic and the German Democratic Republic.
Vrubel’s piece was made eleven years after the event. It was also a near-identical recreation of the photograph. Aura means everything and form and quality of replication is not as important. In his replication though, he misses Leonid Brezhnev’s glasses. This is a very small augmentation. There is no evident reason for this. As much as Vrubel’s mural is a recreation, there is still loss of accuracy in its technical aspects. Technical changes that may have minute impact on the aura can serve to highlight the essential idea of Benjamin that reproduction constantly changes aura. With digital reproduction the loss of accuracy is entirely minimized. With digital reproductions there must be an emphasis on the fact that aura changes even if the image doesn’t in its replication.
The connotations of love and kisses have become the mainstay of recent recreations. Unhate changes Vrubels’ context of a deadly love to creating love out of hate. Trump parodies are often accompanied with insinuations of homosexuality, and a swath of other jokes imagining a gay Trump. These parodies are often so divorced from the original photo and context. The poses have warped to be unrecognizable in its similarity with the original photo and moment. The only line that connects these is that they feature men kissing. The original image has become so iconic for the presence of political men kissing, that it is the reference point of all other men in politics kissing. Remixes and parodies of these type have another layer of removal, in that they are not based on a historical fact. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin did not kiss. Neither have signed any pacts with each other or visited to celebrate their close and enduring bond between countries. There is no reference between them. The only reference is the hypothetical connections between Trump and Putin, and the connotations surrounding men kissing. Trump and Putin are both out as heterosexual men. They do not engage in fraternal kisses. The only reference for them kissing would be out of a secret homosexual love. The result of this is creating a negative image of Trump and Putin as gay men.
Richard Dawkins theorized about “cultural transmission” in The Selfish Gene he analyses the reasons units of culture transform and replicate through human minds. In his interpretation of memes he focuses on “great psychological appeal” devoid of the biological context he normally analyses within. When images achieve a symbology beyond their original intent they can become very rapidly transmitted. Dawkins tries to analyze why this happens, but without analyzing material reasons or appeals why. Only the psychological appeal.
This idea of Trump as a gay man has reproduced so heavily that it can be seen in the countless jokes that imply Trump’s homosexuality and laugh at it. There are many other images of Trump and men kissing. Images and jokes that do this in relation to Bossu’s image are changing the context of the socialist fraternal kiss. It serves to remove this historical context and reinforce the removal of historical context in other forms. What it replaces with the historical context are man types of harmful ideas about gay men. Insinuating affection between men as evidence of intimate and sexual relationships enforces toxic masculinity. Insinuation that notably anti-gay figures, like Trump and Putin, are gay is equally offensive. Jokes about men’s secret homosexuality does nothing towards these figures. It only creates more homophobia and shallow critiques of powerful world leaders.
This entirely forgoes material and historical appeals as well. Dawkins would perceive these reproduced images as the result of psychological appeal, and their aura a part of it. The “survival value” of Bossu’s photo is not based off of an innate psychological appeal. Its is based on its multitude of interpretations based on historical and material context. Images are reproduced and their aura is changed based on historical and material influences.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Walter. The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. Schocken Books, 2007.
Bossu, Regis. Photograph of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker Kissing. My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ My_God,_Help_Me_to_Survive_This_Deadly_Love
Dawkins, Richard. The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, 1976. 189–201.
“Image Gallery.” Unhate Foundation, unhate.benetton.com/gallery/china_usa/.
Special To the New York Times. “Soviet and East Germans Sign an Economic Pact.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Oct. 1979, www.nytimes.com/1979/10/06/archives/soviet- and-east-germans-sign-an-economic-pact.html
“The Socialist Fraternal Kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, 1979.” Rare Historical Photos, 14 Oct. 2017, rarehistoricalphotos.com/socialist-fraternal-kiss-leonid-brezhnev-erich- honecker-1979/.
Vinocur, John. “Brezhnev Arrives in East Germany For 30th Anniversary Celebration.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 1979, http://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/05/ archives/brezhnev-arrives-in-east-germany-for-30th-anniversary-celebration.html
Vrubel, Dmitri. My God, Help Me to Survive this Deadly Love. My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ My_God,_Help_Me_to_Survive_This_Deadly_Love
