[Leica] Re: Re: clandestine photographs of other people

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

Another good answer. Thank you Martin.

I have photographs of people in public places, in my books. As a publisher,
I am familiar with the advertising/editorial laws.

My question was simply a question to see why those LUGgers who pursue this
endeavor, pursue it. Nothing more.

Jim


At 10:02 PM 9/20/99 -0400, Martin Howard wrote:
>
>Jim Brick wrote:
>> 
>> But those of you that "sneak" photographs of other people, or photograph
>> other people's children at a playground... what is it that you do with
>> these photographs? You cannot publish them, you would neither want to hang
>> them on your wall, nor have a slide show. Or would you?
>> 
>
>There is a style of photography that is called `street photography'.  I
>don't know its correct historical background, but I imagine that it stemmed
>out of the earlier styles of photojournalism and photodocumentation which
>aimed at capturing some aspect of life at a given point in time.
>
>I'm going to ignore the connotations of illicit behaviour in `sneaking'
>pictures for the moment and try to explain what, IMO, makes this a
>worthwhile pursuit.
>
>Assuming for a moment that we are not talking about `stalking' people with a
>400mm lens, but more the style of photography one could expect to be able to
>perform with an M-style camera, I would argue that a great many of those
>pictures that stir the hearts of people on this list would fit into the
>`street' category.
>
>Many people shots by photographers such as our beloved HCB and Eisenstadt,
>to mention but two, fit into the `street photography' category.
>
>It is not about spying on people, it is about fascination with human
>diversity and with documenting the world of today around us. It isn't going
>to exist forever.  1999 will look *very* different from 2039, 2049 or 2059.
>And it is interesting to take pictures of other than family members, or
>those by whom you've been commissioned to take pictures.
>
>I certainly would not mind hanging well-talken street pictures on my wall.
>I'd love to exhibit such pictures and make a name for myself as a competent
>street photographer (which, btw, is *far* into the future, if at all).  I'd
>be happy to design web galleries around some theme, area, group, or what not
>with these pictures, which I guess constitutes publishing in some manner.
>
>Indeed, I would go so far as to argue that it is the single most important
>style of photography for Leica rangefinders, in so far as it would be all
>but impossible with cameras such as the big, modern SLRs.
>
>M.
>
>-- 
>Martin Howard                     | Yeah, I'm pretty outnumbered there,
>Visiting Scholar at MIT Media Lab | Dave..., eh, Jay...
>email: mvh@media.mit.edu          |  - Bruce Willis (on The Tonight Show)
>www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------
>