Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/08

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Subject: Re: [Leica] some new snaps, a propos
From: Eric Welch <eric@jphotog.com>
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2003 17:49:12 -0800

Is this the pot calling the kettle black?

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm getting personal. But you seem unable to
understand that what I am saying and it becomes frustrating. What you say
over and over points to that. Such as the first paragraph of this post from
you:

> I simply mentioned that
> Salgado uses a lot of burning and dodging - effects which were deemed to be
> untruthful in another context. If you want to argue about the degree, that's
> OK. But that doesn't mean that no manipulation was used.

I never said dodging and burning was untruthful. And no serous thinking
person would argue that. The NPPA certainly doesn't argue that.

And who said no manipulation was used? You keep setting up straw men like
this which seems ends up in avoiding the points we try to make. You keep
skating around the issue at the heart of this argument. It has nothing to do
with Salgado, Cartier-Bresson, Jim Nachtwey, Joe Rosenthal, Dave Harvey, or
any other "famous" photojournalist who believes it is wrong to manipulate
subjects to get the photo you want rather than recording what happens
naturally in front of the camera. The heart of the issue is that we do not
accept manipulated subjects as legitimate in terms of documentary or
photojournalism. There's plenty of other genre in which to practice visual
communication. But we professional practitioners in those fields know what
we believe and we know it is consistent. You keep calling us fools (in
essence) and naïve and we object. Those are personal attacks worse than
anything inflicted on you on this list.

My arguments are not meant to be personal. They are not attacks. But if it
feels like they are, maybe there's something inherently wrong with the
position you are taking and there's no way out of making what we say not
feel critical of that approach. Agree to disagree, but don't insult us and
then cry foul when you get a taste of your own medicine.

on 11/8/03 10:49 AM, Rob Appleby at rob@robertappleby.com wrote:

> I do hope you don't go in for this kind of bullying at your thousand year old
> journalism school.


Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA
http://www.jphotog.com

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre
minds. -- Albert Einstein


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