Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/09/24

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Subject: Re: offtopic:photo contest
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 09:31:04 -0500

At 09:17 AM 9/24/97 +0800, you wrote:
>How does one portray or show strength in a photograph ?? some people I have
>asked suggested I take a shot of a person doing dumbells or barbells, with
>the body sweating out, some suggested I take a picture of two people

There are about six billion ways to do it. The barbell shot is literalistic
and cliche. Avoid cliches like the plague! :-)

When I think of photos of strength, I think of the mother bathing her
daughter in  Gene Smith's Minimata essay. Or of Neil Leifer's picture of
Ali standing over his opponent yelling "I am the greatest" or whatever he
was yelling. Or maybe the FSA photo of the Migrant Mother by Dorthea Lang.
Or most of the pictures from Sebastiao Salgado's "Workers" book. Especially
the ship breakers.

Strength has many meanings, and you have to get to what type of strength
you want. Then find someone who exemplifies it, and photograph them being
strong. Photography is wonderful in the flexibility we have in picking
subjects from real life. Those kinds of pictures are usually much stronger,
pun intended, than the fake set-up type shots that are easy to get by
playing off a cliche or literalistic idea.

=============
Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

 98% of all statistics are useless.