Re: [Leica] Today's Great Photographers {was Photo whores}

[Mark <mark@steinberg.net>]

Roy J. Feldman wrote:
> 
> The chicken or the egg comment is a bit off base, especially when directed
> at catalog photography.

ok.

> The shots are (when not cheap down and dirty) drawn on a layout, shot on
> Polaroid, approved by the Art Director, often faxed to the client then shot.
> There is a lot of bad Art Direction out there, but they are the client. If
> you want to call it a craft I wouldn't argue.

clearly it is a craft that takes a number of skills to maintain employment,
i.e. it is a complex and demanding craft.

> It is seldom art, more often than not it is problem solving. I can't tell
> you the times we will have set up a creative shot only to have a (usually
> young and inexperienced)AD meddle with it, not so much to help it
> creatively, but to justify his existence to the client.("the photog wanted
> real moody lighting but I saved our ass")That's the job I save my creativity
> for my Fine Art business. 90% of commercial is politics, occasionally an AD
> will say "use your best judgment" but these are only the rare people who are
> secure. These guys do get fired every other week. Very little romance here.

well.....there must be some divergence going on, because eric welch commented
that it's not 90% about skills non-photographic....perhaps i misread him.

there must be a complimentary principle to the KISS one, "It's The Client
Stupid !" (or was that Clinton's slogan ? "It's The Economy Stupid" ? i
guess pretty much the same thing).

but it seems like people here want it both ways...there's alot of blame 
and bile directed at the art directors (seen it from several people) and
yet it's they who are getting fired every other work ? so they take the
heat too ? it seems like these poor people get it coming AND going ?

in most publications there is supposed to be a synergy between the photographs
and the textual context they are arranged within ? be that a weekly, monthly,
or catalog kind of affair ?

this thread has moved from the woes of the commercial photgrapher to
"today's greats". someone suggested that we are surrounded by greats,
it's just a matter of opening our (my) eyes, yet where are these great
photographers working ? what makes them great ? do they use leica ? :-)

erwin asked why we use leica gear. i use it because it captures photographs
that are closer to what i see than any other camera i've ever used. i 
guess alot of that is the lenses, the body is discrete and functional too.

bringing this into thread, it seems (as a consumer) that there is little
commercial photography that it taken with a unique perpective, especially
in the context of the number of photographs we are bombarded with daily.
it may well be that this dull blandness is the fault of the art directors ?

or is it ?

mark