Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Rob, your message is reassuring. I'm getting private email suggesting I'm a dunderhead for have criticized photojournalism. In fact, what I criticized are the pretensions of those who believe PJ is what it clearly is not. I was at a friend's apartment a while back and the network news came on. I rose to leave (which I had planned to do), but was asked wouldn't I like to stay and watch the news. I said no, and someone snidely asked whether I cared what was going on in the world--implying I was a know-nothing, feel-nothing person who didn't have the humanity to sit for half an hour and be informed about something outside of myself. It wasn't the proper time to explain that I never purposely watch network news because I don't trust being informed by idiots who put on happy faces for one story, and sad faces for the next, while relating story after story of meaningless chatter. Quality had been left out of the equation. So much of what passes as PJ is meaningless filler, but it has taken on a kind of symbolic meaning that stands for caring and activism. Rob doesn't post often on the LUG, but when he writes, "Why is there virtually no market for photographic documentary" he knows what he is talking about. Rob's talent as a documentary photographer is secure because of the excellence of his portfolio. If he can't sell his work, it's because quality work is not being bought. I suggest anyone interested do a google.com search for "City of Crows" or "Hazaratown Stories". I don't know what other parts of Robs portfolio is out on the web in pdf form, but I have those two so I know they are available. Rob, last time I attempted to get to your site, I was unable to. Is it up? Allan Rob Appleby wrote: > It would be worth thinking about why this is so. My instinct is that > very > few people enjoy being educated, they mainly want to be entertained. > Hence > the triumph of the movies and TV over print. Very few of us remember > anything about what actually went on during the Vietnam war, but many > of us > watch films (mostly complete bullshit) or even TV documentaries about it > because it's fun to do so - it's got nothing to do with a need to be > informed. > > Why is there virtually no market for photographic documentary? Because > reading and assimilating information and images is work, whereas (say) > watching a crap movie like City of Joy (which purports to also inform > us) is > entertaining, and the completely misleading picture it gives of > Calcutta or > South Asian slums in general is neither here nor there, really. As > another > example, it's far more fun to look at pictures of the latest Palm > handheld > and imagine owning it than it is to look at pictures of other people's > unaspirational lives. > > I suspect that pictures in newspapers are more of an editorial habit > than > anything else - we're used to seeing them there and expect them, but > virtually no-one really looks at them or attempts to understand them > (and > their content in 99% of cases is so minimal that who could be bothered > anyway?). If they really added value to a publication, then there'd be a > flourishing market for PJ - which there simply isn't. > > Even at the visual level most photography is so banal. Who can be > bothered > to look at that stuff when they can see Matrix or Resident Evil and see > really cutting edge visuals? I was more moved by the bullet dodging, > frozen > time panning and martial arts in Matrix, or by the brilliantly edited > heist > scene in 2000 Miles from Memphis than by anything I've seen in print > for the > last ten years. Perhaps partly because I didn't feel an obligation to be > moved by it. > > R. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Allan Wafkowski" <allanwafkowski@mac.com> > To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> > Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 2:31 AM > Subject: Re: [Leica] Millimeters and Milliseconds > > >> One would be hard pressed to find empirical proof that photojournalism >> has had any profound effect on the world. One can find ample proof that >> art has profoundly changed the world. One need only look to the >> 1960s-1970s. The music, art, and literature played a profound role in >> changing American and European culture. It wasn't politics, and it >> wasn't newspaper photography. Five years of Disco changed the world >> more >> than 90 years of photojournalism. >> >> Allan >> > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html