Iconic Photo: The Love and Terror Cult

Kady Fortier

Photographs enter into our cultural heritage and our social consciousness, creating an unspoken understanding of an event in history. We associate these images with so much: our gut reaction, coupled with what we know about the photo, and even where we were when we first felt these things. A photograph can elicit all of these complex thoughts and feelings in the span of seconds - or we can feel absolutely nothing. We can look at a photo and find it completely unremarkable. It may have meant something to the person who took it, or even hold meaning for a short time. These photographs are brief, fleeting, forgettable. It is an iconic photograph that stands out beyond the rest. The photo does not change over time, but the world around it changes. These photos resonate with multiple groups of people, from different backgrounds. These images represent a larger ideal and convey a message that is felt deeply. Somehow the photographer has captured a brief second that manages to tell us everything we need to know. An icon, by definition, is representative of a larger idea. These larger ideas shape our thoughts as a culture and as a society and become synonymous with a thought that tends to stay in the population’s mindset. With this in mind, we are aware that in order for these photos to become iconic, they must first circulate and be publicized to the point at which they are immediately recognized. One issue we must consider when these photos reach infamy, is the trends they will create.

Although it’s not often these days, when people hear the name of Charles Manson, they think of his crimes- a cult leader who ordered the deaths of actress Sharon Tate and her friends. They may visualize also, his TIME magazine cover from 1969.

The fame of the so-called Manson murders had spread throughout the country. Hippie counterculture was thrown into the media under a negative light. "The Love and Terror Cult" was the biggest news in California, and across the country. The front pages were plastered with this man, his wild-eyed stare captivating and frightening. The idea of these shiftless wanderers breaking into the home of a 8 1/2 month pregnant woman and killing them in cold blood was too much to comprehend in this era of peace and love. Yet here he was, preaching of peace and love, and announcing his fear of the impending "race war". Manson had convinced this group of people, mostly young women, that not only was he God, he was their only hope for happiness.
Manson grew up in anonymous poverty in the 30s, and was a criminal from a young age. He was a thief, and a bad one. Bouncing from jails to juvenile correction, he learned to fend for himself not through strength, but through personality. He was able to learn charisma in order to survive the harsh conditions in which he grew to adulthood. The only thing he wanted was to play music, and become famous. He moved to California where the hippie movement was thriving, and began to amass a small group of women, many of whom would follow him to the end. His charisma, in addition to drug abuse, set up the series of events that would lead up to the eventual murder spree committed by his followers. We see in his most famous photo, the insanity and evil that seemed to ooze off of him. His gaze is far away and unsettling, and knowing the reason for his sudden fame makes it somehow even more devilish.
When TIME magazine covered the event, the "family" had only just been captured. The journalist goes into graphic and specific detail about what happened to Tate and her friends that night. The public was shocked and horrified, but could not look away. This is something that has happened time and time again in our public consciousness. A morbid fascination by the public, which sells more papers, which makes the stories more and more graphic and sensationalized. This continues today with many other stories. News stories about Columbine, the Boston Marathon bombings, and (sadly) hundreds more, give notoriety and faces to these killers. We know their names and their faces. They live on in our collective memory as horrible and cruel people. Yet they get their wish. They achieve fame and they become recognizable. We give these people a platform to spread their negativity and hate, and we allow ourselves to become affected. We must think about the message we are conveying to our culture by allowing people like Manson to become iconic and achieve this spot in our public consciousness. An icon, it must be repeated, is representative of a larger idea and this should be heavily weighed before sending these ideas into the world.



PS: Martha, I tried to fix the spacing on this post but I can't figure it out, I'm sorry it looks so strange!