Re: [Leica] Natchwey interview

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

At 3:27 PM +0000 4/18/00, Donal Philby wrote:
>Martin Howard wrote:
>
>> While I agree with a great many things in your message, I don't believe that
>> anyone can ever "show how the world really is".  It is all a matter of
>> selective perception.  Natchwey is showing us *one* aspect of the world as
>> he has perceived it, one which is all too often conveniently forgotten, but
>> it is no more or less real than what is shown on ESPN.  Yes, the
>> consequences are different;  yes, you can argue about importance (although I
>> contend that that is essentially a social construct too), but it is
>> impossible to definitively nail down Reality, doubly so where human affairs
>> are concerned, and triply so when selected, interpreted, and communicated by
>> someone else.
>
>So true, Howard, and so dangerous though to filter so intellectually.
>Granted we need "objectivity" but also we need to suspend our disbelief,
>as they say, in order to get to the "reality" of the artist/reporter and
>increase our viewpoints.  You cannot be intellectually critical and
>fully receptive at the same time.  But it is healthy to learn to shift
>between such viewpoints.  To loose one or the other is crippling.
>
>donal
>__________
>Donal Philby
>San Diego
>www.donalphilby.com

Right. Critical viewing; receptive uncritical viewing with direct emotional
responses and everything in between, all filtered through our own
experiences are all valid. In fact, anything less would be prejudicial.

Our own responses and filtered viewpoints are as valid as anyone elses.
'True objectivity' does not exist, and we must accept our own as well as
other's prejudices. We can work on them, analyze them and try to neutralize
them as they appear to us to cloud our judgement, but they are part of
ourselves and can never be gotten rid of. We have a tough time
understanding our family members and co-workers at times; how far are we
removed from understanding the viewpoints of truly different cultures? This
still leaves universes of other realities outside our humanity unexplored,
all of which make up true objectivity.

Let's just accept that we have subjective viewpoints, and use that as a
proper basis. We'll try and work on those prejudices that we recognize and
that seem improper or muddying in some way, and if we can, in the end,
realize both some personal emotional response as well as some critical
response that is as objective as we can manage, then we have achieved a
personal balance that we can live with. More than that we cannot manage,
nor should we presume to.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
  /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
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