Photo of the Year
Posted by Mark Allen on 17 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Random Posts
The news photo image of murder suspect John Mark Karr, at left, is hands-down PHOTO OF THE YEAR – it belongs in a museum. Why? Look at the casually perfect composition of Karr, his head framed like a halo by the telling body (and hand) language of the handlers and press members (whom we only see part of). The whole lay-out rivals a 17th century Caravaggio painting! And that face centered in the upper half! Those eyes! Seduction! The Mona Lisa’s smile says less! And the colors! The sky blue shirt popping out of the daylight but nevertheless shadowy background… all-the-way buttoned! The too waist-high disturbing khaki pants! No belt! Do I see some foreshortened perspective in those legs? Why yes I do! …and the crotch, which is centered – and mirrors the upper-half-centering of the face, drawing an invisible dividing line horizontally across the photo’s center (represented symbolically by the missing belt?) Your eyes just bounce back and forth between that disturbing crotch, which forces you to look away and then to the disturbing face, repelling your eyes back to that awful crotch, forcing you to look away – and so on and so forth. The whole photo plays pedophile ping-pong with your eyeballs! Look what has been captured here! Talk about “hypnotic locking visionâ€? this man could seduce a desk lamp! *gasp!* By the way, I know I’m not the only person on earth who was disappointed late last night when they heard there was huge break in the Jon Benet murder case that involved a man arrested in Bangkok who had confessed to the murder. Oh, okay… it was one lone killer that knew the child, and broke into the home at night or something, and killed her. It was an accident during some deplorable sex thing. Okay. You mean it wasn’t the unstable mother? It wasn’t the jitter-eyed, evasive father? All the creepy inconsistencies in the case that took years to confuse us more, more, more, more and more and (don’t stop) more and more …they all just meant, nothing. The whole luridly fascinating, obsessive mess was washed away like a sand castle, just like that. Oh well, they caught the perpetrator. Yep. Good. That’s great. The family can rest in peace, mmhmm… justice is served. Karma is real. The sun has risen on normalcy. It’s just like a few years ago when we found out who “deep throatâ€? really was. But wait… I wake up this morning …aaaaand look on the Drudge Report and lo and behold my bored eyes spy the photo of suspect John Mark Karr (above), framed with red and black news headline-links (where’s the flashing siren?) like “Suspect may have given false confessionâ€? and “Authorities doubt confession is realâ€? and “Suspect was totally obsessed with child murdersâ€? and “Suspect had strange, loner life in Thailandâ€? and “Evidence doesn’t support Karr’s claimsâ€? and “Karr’s brother says suspect working on book about child murderers may have slipped into ill mental health and may be doing the whole thing for some kind of twisted sick fame thing and…â€? oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god my eyes widened and the whole thing just became 100-times more fascinating. I’m floored! Yes… you just read those last statements and no I did not type them by mistake. I was really like a child who went to bed thinking Santa wasn’t going to come on Christmas morning, and woke up to a room full of presents. You would be correct in your assumption that I am as sick as John Mark Karr might be. Yes Satan, there really is a Santa Clause.
Mark,
You may be sick, but you write really well.
Phil
As of this evening, they can’t even find anyone to place him anywhere near Colorado the day of the murder. The case is hanging by the DNA now.
You’re right about those eyes–he could get you to do anything with that look.
The funniest thing to come out of this was his statement. He said it was an accident and that he only meant to kidnap her. Not really putting one’s best foot forward in terms of defense!
I was dissapointed too. One wants to feel that “Patsy” –even her name ws creepy. She was a grown woman, why not Patty or Patricia or even Pat?– was somehow behind it. We wanted another reason to hate the kind of people who dress their children like Barbie dolls. If this guy DID, in fact do it, we’re back to just hating them for that. We shall see.
I have to admit, it’s the creepiest photo I’ve seen in a long time. I think I had a nightmare about it last night. The whole act seems a bit rehearsed and totally surreal.
Hope all is well upstate! Do you miss the city after all those years?
this guy is clearly made of play doh.
at willy wonka’s chocolate factory.
you’re a genius, mark.
Oh I knew it! You were going to write about this! “Creepy” with a capital C. He has a head that looks like it has a rubber mask on it that you’ll pull away to reveal someone else. I wonder if Scooby Doo and the Gang were involved? Maybe it’s Old Man Jenkins from the Mill tryin’ to scare people away for some crooked real estate development. Or beauty pagent development.
I had a dream about John Mark Karr last night. It took place on the set of “Small Wonder”, John Mark Karr “Jean Bonet Ramsey’d” Vicki the Robot. Yikes!
It is as if a pedophilic wax statue came to life.
As usual Mark, we have our shared obsessions. Some of the news footage where he’s being surrounded by that huge moving mob giving statements reminded me of Lee Harvey Oswald, but as some southern geek hipster, a Fred Schneider doppelganger zonked out on percosets. He obviously has nothing to do with this killing, like Helen Hunt in my fave Lifetime movie “In the Company of Darkness” he’s identifying with his obsession to the point of losing himself completely.
I’ll tell you, nothing convinced me of his innocence more than having to see that grainy black and white Patsy Ramsey police interrogation tape where she says she doesn’t “give a FLIP” about the fact that they think she had something to do with Jon Benet’s death…ick.
xoxo
pseu
Sad stuff in this world
Ok I add the art I did of you to my post and your llink
http://www.xanga.com/thedarkleo19
I never follow true crime. Unless it’s, y’know, baseball-related.