[Leica] Salgado' s work--reflection

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Bill Smith offered:
>  I guess the only thing I could say critical about some of his work ( I 
> saw 173 in this showing) is that I had this strange feeling that it was 
> "staged" or "choreographed". I hate to say that, but can anyone be that 
> lucky/ talented to get those shots? On the other hand, maybe he just shot 
> a ton of film. Who knows. Only Salgado I guess. But that doesn't take 
> anything away from the impact of the images<<<

Hi Bill,
It's a number of things that allows him to shoot and be so successful; major 
time, major money, major support backing him and without question, ability!

I believe, he's a "people kind of person." In other words he reads body 
language, composition and sees the moment almost before it happens. Much 
like a good hockey player who knows what the move is going to be before it 
happens, then shoots and scores.

It doesn't matter what camera gear he uses he'd do the same things, because 
it's how he sees, not the gear. The Leica in hand creates a physical comfort 
zone in hand which allows total concentration on what's before him with no 
thought to gear. Money put in hand to use other camera types makes for a 
different kind of comfort zone! ;-)

Yes he shoots a ton of film, you have to as it goes with capturing the 
moments. I bet he never thinks about how much film he's using because he's 
writing with his camera. Much like a painter doesn't start a painting and 
think about how many tubes of paint he will use.

He always has interesting subjects to work with, people seemingly always 
under some form of heavy duty work or on the down and dirty side of the 
elements or that nature. Quite frankly never hard to make interesting 
photographs in this environment of life.

What would be interesting to see is, him shoot in high society situations 
and make "super exciting photographs" that move people as much as his down 
and dirty picture situations.

This is not to take anything away from his ability, as that's a given.

But, trust me, if you have not attempted to shoot within these two 
environments and be equally successful in both, it's extremely hard. Without 
question producing magical moments from high society or even middle class 
folks it's a super challenge. Certainly pictures with the impact of his 
other works.

You can to some degree, but probably having double or triple the time to 
shoot it, not to mention access to their lives in the same open manner of 
the worker bees.  Besides the society people would probably want to "vet" 
the pictures before any were used.

Shooting these two subjects is worlds apart, like being on Mars and Earth! 
:-)
ted