Sometimes, visual culture’s role within advanced capitalism is to flatten and filter history, and to commodify it as digestible narratives. It was this fact, regarding the widespread popularization of Keep Calm and Carry On knockoff posters and other merchandise, that inspired this image. I have been troubled and annoyed by the “meme” of KCCO, because of its blankness and referentlessness, or a reference which is incomplete, perhaps connoting only Englishness. I think the true history of the original image is fascinating and a story that is additionally, heroic and marketable, so I’ve been frustrated that even such a story has been masked for the sake of iconicity and meaninglessness. To sum it up briefly, the behavior of the English commonfolk and domestic government during World War Two was noble to say the least. They rallied around around a clear expression of what the preservation of their culture meant, and stood by their values of honor, community, and courage. This was performed in many ways, from the orderly adherence to the blackout rules, to the re-configuration of labor to produce more domestic food products in order to manage the food shortages they experienced because of the difficulty of importing anything, to acceptance of blitz damage and death with optimism and resolution. All this is summed up in one of the poster’s series siblings, which states “Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory.” These motvational posters which so outwardly speak emotional values were distributed by the Ministry of Information during the blitz. However, the ministry was aware that things might go badly and England might suffer an actual invasion and maybe even occupation, as Paris did. So, the Keep Calm poster was held in reserve, as a final message for the people in the event of Nazi occupation. The poster was unearthed from an archive a few years ago, remembered, and it became a story anew.
To me, there is a lot of emotional resonance and a real sense of awe in this story, and the telling of it is a good illustration of why history matters, in the most positive way. There is something good to be learned here. So, why then, would our current visual culture set out to obliterate this story by making confetti of the poster and transforming it into something that can hold any message whatsoever? I think this question gets at the heart of visual culture today and the purpose it serves, and I think it’s a shame, because pictures can do much more than simply transact simple ideas or promote products, they can teach more deeply. The Keep Calm poster can teach deeply, but it’s being silenced with static, to mix metaphors.
All this, and my recreation of a horrific scene of occupation in which the only solace is one of these bastard version of the poster, is to restate and reconfigure the arguments made by Berger, in an attempt to undo the damage that has been done to the KCCO poster. If a message’s inner workings can be revealed in collage, I hope this collage reveals to some extent, the inner workings of the KCCO poster, even in its absence. This collage’s elements, on the other hand, test the value of this “buy shoes” version. I hope they point up its near-total lack of value. I certainly fall in line with the presentation of this collage not as a political weapon, but as an instrument of political investigation, though I think because of the exclusion of the original poster, most of the investigation has to occur in the viewer’s mind or in their conversations with co-viewers. I think I’ve taken Berger’s assertion that photomontage is suited for political education and tried to adapt the methods he discusses toward historical education, which is never not political in itself, though narratively different. I think if anything, the space produced is problematically open, since the history lesson is only alluded to by the image. Still, I think the story a viewer could put together from this image would bring questions to mind for them that I’d say are on the right track to learn deeply and meaningfully about this moment in history.
Image Citations
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-buy-shoes-318.png
http://waralbum.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kurt-Meyer.jpg
http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/watermark/6420114414534879491.jpg
https://paullincoln.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120806-204620.jpg
http://waralbum.ru/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/424180985_d8f86ce1ea_o.jpg
http://ww2today.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising_03.jpg
Amber Rae Bowyer 
