Gleaning

Riefenstahl's images are epic. That is the best way I would describe them. They turn her subjects into heroes. I can see how these pictures could easily be placed in a propaganda setting. Again, this speaks to the power of the image in influencing people, much like I discussed in the Errol Morris gleaning. These images are very compelling, but I can see how the historical context and controversy put a very unfavorable light on them and Reifenstahl. To me, it seems as if Reifenstahl was just trying to forward her own career, which meant that she got caught up in the Nazi regime. I do not believe she was whole heartedly a Nazi, since the New Yorker article describes her reaction as negative to the first jewish extermination in Poland. I think that things are not completely black and white in Riefenstahl's case, but I do not think that her images should suffer for it. They describe a certain period in history and even though it was a dark time, they should not be simply ingored or forgotten.