One could describe Mark Laita's content as fiercely direct, heart wrenching, and all the things, but that's really for the viewer to say.  Regardless of how you choose to feel about it, one thing's for sure; his content is honest. Yes, to raw, genuine, authentic and human and whatever else that pertains to its realism, but it is primarily honest and in a way, unusually fair to the viewer. See, it touches on the human condition and creates a floor for different kinds of experiential emotions to come out of it, but it does not dictate or attempt to force anything out of you. There is a kind of fairness, that viewers do not come across often. It doesn't imply how you should feel about the story you hear; it simply focuses on the story and the protagonist and you can take it from there.  

 

Dramatization constitutes contemporary media's pathogeny. It is - or should be - in the viewer's discretion to decide how they want to interpret a piece of information, and make what they will of it. One could argue that this is always the case since, regardless of how a piece of information is presented, viewers are the ones that will ultimately decide how to process it. But this is no 100% true. The use of a specific lens can and will point a viewer to a certain direction to either tie to an existing perception or create one, even subliminally so. This is what makes Laita's approach so unique; the complete lack of dictation. His approach is right down democratizing the process, turning a story's consumption to a 'before' and 'after' experience. Remember when you were little and walked into a cinema for the very first time being a certain type of person, and by the time you'd finished watching the film - one that would end up being the most profoundly lifechanging film you'd ever watch - you'd walk out of the theatre realizing that something would never be the same again? That's the feeling. That deeply transformative feeling you find really difficult to explain or process even after years have gone by. A process that is deeply personal. Our initial reaction is to push that new piece of new information to some corner deep within until we are mentally ready to look at it in the eye. We might choose to suppress it for days, weeks or even years, and then one day - usually once we have made an 'arrival' at some 'place' - we will revisit that feeling and suddenly make sense of a certain scene or quote in that film; it will suddenly start to feel resonant because of that arrival that's happened between our 'then' and 'now'. And then, perhaps years or decades later, this revisit will happen again, only our lens will have changed some more based on how much we will have evolved and the ways we will have absorbed the blessings or hardships we will have experienced in the meantime. And then once again, that feeling and outlook on a certain scene or quote in that film will differ; perhaps even vastly so. Perhaps we might find ourselves more understanding or lenient, when once absolute and harsh in our judgment. 

 

That feeling that we once experienced, is collected and embedded in our cellular memory and continues to live within us. So, as we evolve, that too evolves with us. This same mechanism is triggered by the White Soft Underbelly and the stories it delves into. And this mechanism follows a course and then down the line, in its progression, it causes a shift to happen. And if you are 'ready', if you have done the 'work', if you have travelled the distance, then that shift is one you can't escape. It's a massive one.

 

In some of his interviews, when referencing his past work, Mark Laita said , and I quote, 'it was great...but then it became not great [...] I spent most of my career doing advertising work. So I'm basically helping wealthy corporations become even wealthier. I realized as I got older, that was my legacy and I didn't feel comfortable with that. So I wanted to do something that mattered more in the world'.  To me, his words capture the sentiment that ignited the shift within him; so real and substantial to the point where his content could not help but be instilled with his honesty and created with purpose. 

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To view available content, visit the Soft White Underbelly website. 

To take a closer look at Mark Laita's photography work, visit Annenberg Space for Photography 

Mark Laita's book titled: Created Equal is available on Goodreads. 

Mark Laita's latest podcast interview #1910 - Mark Laita on The Joe Rogan Experience is available on Spotify.