Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/20

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Re:Ask?
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 10:07:37 -0000

Paul Chefurka wrote:
>
> On Sun, 19 Sep 1999 17:42:23 -0700, Mark Rabiner
> <mrabiner@concentric.net> wrote:
>
> >If people are going to have paranoid delusions of our motivations and
> >unreasonable expectations of privacy that is not our as serious
photographers problem.
>
> It can be our problem if they decide to act on those delusions -
> either at the time through physical violence, or later through lawyers
> (civilized violence...)
>
> I think it behooves us all to be polite to the public - after all,
> they're our source of images.  If you piss someone off and later I try
> to take his picture and he breaks my nose, I will factor you into my
> negative feelings...
>
> Paul Chefurka


> I think serial killers get more respect than the average
photographer.
Mark Rabiner
- ------

That's probably true Mark, because every serial killer seems to be a former
alter boy whose neighbors are shocked at what's found in his refrigerator or
under his bed - "He was always so polite and quite" - while at the same time
there really are an awful lot of incredibly rude s.o.bs wandering around
with cameras out there.

The other thing to consider, of course, in terms of the lack of respect
accorded photographers v. serial killers, is that the average person has
never committed a single murder, much less multiple murders, while everyone
has taken photos and considers him or herself a photographer. I mean, what's
the big deal about being a photographer, right, just point the camera and
push the button! :-)  (public attitude, not mine. After all, LUGers, ask the
average person on the street to name a single famous photographer and my
guess is you'd get not a single reply. Ask the person on the street who HCB,
Capa, Eisenstadt, Haas, Salgado, Grant, or Smith were, and you'd get not a
single accurate identification. We who are devoted to photography may view
our "art" and those who practice it as the center of the universe...but the
rest of the universe pretty much takes it for granted if they consider it at
all....