Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/14

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: E.Adams & Vietnam Photo
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 10:30:51 -0700

Eric Welch wrote:
> 
> At 07:59 PM 9/13/99 -0400, TSL wrote:
> >The impact is no doubt that instant which is so powerful.  To be quite
> >honest - and this is a personal opinion that's all - there are not many
> >pictures that can have that kind of impact.
> 
> All I can say to this is, you just don't see it. It's not that it isn't
> there in many, many pictures. I'm sure you're telling the truth. But just
> because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not there. And judging from
> people's reactions (both pro and amateur) I'd say you are in the minority.
> (Not a bad thing, just the way it is).
> 
> Ernst Haas' picture of the woman fearfully holding up a picture of a loved
> one as refugees from WWII come back home. Or Sebastiao Salgado's pictures
> of Ethiopian refugees standing in a sand storm, with the most amazing light
> surrounding them, a child's head tilted slightly. David Douglas Duncan's
> photo of the shell-shocked soldier. David Turnley's photo of the soldier in
> the evacuation helicopter during the gulf war. His fact stricken with grief
> because he just found out the person in the body bag next to him is a friend.
> 
> Eisenstadt's photos of the ballerinas in the window, or the kids falling
> into line behind the drum major - or even his sailor kissing the nurse.
> Many of the photos in "The Americans" by Robert Frank. Migrant Mother.
> (Don't even need to mention the photographer's name on that one). Kertesz's
> night photo of snow falling in Washington Park.
> 
> Gene Smith's Minimata photo essay. Most likely one of the most successful
> photo essays of all time. (And the one he most "compromised" on without
> complaint).
> 
> Robert Capa's death of a soldier.
> 
> For those with eyes to see, it's quite plain that photography is a powerful
> medium. That can create icons that change the way people see the world.
> 
Eric you are clearly a man committed to the love of photography. And that is the
bottom line for and with me. I'm going to print this and maybe cut a window mat,
frame it and hang it on the lathe and plaster.
Mark Rabiner