Although most gacchas accepted the practice of image worship, the Lumpaka, or Lonka Gaccha, did not.
Analysis of his complex and contradictory rhetorical strategies reveals three important implications for the theory and practice of image repair.
Used as a kind of social media subterfuge, a tool to erase relative "negative" qualities of an image in pursuit of some unreal ideal, it opposes the more popular practice of image manipulation with the hopes of eliciting a positive response from the public domain.
The festival's first launch focused on the practices of image and movement in the context of digital creation, and was split up into three days to allow for a full exploration of everything it had to offer.
The professional identities, image-making practices, forms of image and visual languages used within this process were not new or specific to South Africa, even if they were operating in new institutional contexts.
"In Bloom" makes public an appreciation of what happens in private, makes love enmeshed in the practice of making images.
This development accompanied and served the growing cult of saints and the widespread practice of addressing images as focuses of prayer and veneration.
The practice of banning images flourished under Christianity as well, though it was used more for revenge, humiliation or the promotion of religious orthodoxy than it was for justice or catharsis.
But 40 years into his career, Richard Prince's practice of taking images from other sources without permission, changing them minimally (if at all), presenting them as his own work and selling them with a hefty price tag is still proving controversial.
Later the practice of making images of wood was abandoned, other materials being substituted.
Criticism over the practice of Photoshopping images, dangerous dieting, or undergoing extreme physical transformations are all, in some sense, more easily addressed than the stickier task of changing our collective perception as we flip through the pages of a magazine to see more than just an underwear model, but maybe, a surgeon, a teacher, a graphic designer, or even a future president.
