RE: [Leica] Natchwey interview

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Oh damn, here we go....

While it is true that no ONE person can show us the way the world "really"
is, journalists collectively can. Of course the vision they present to us is
filtered through their subjective eyes, but as everyone's vision is
subjective, as long as we are getting many reports, that shouldn't be a
problem.

As I see it, the Natchways, Salgados, Richards, and, yes, Manley's - and
others like them - are the heroes of photography, and the people who make
photography worth thinking about.

B. D.

"There is no true objectivity; there is only, at best subjective truth."


- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Martin
Howard
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 12:48 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Natchwey interview


Dan Post jotted down the following:
>
> Perhaps we need more photojournalist out there who can show us how the
world
> really is [...]
>

While I agree with a great many things in your message, I don't believe that
anyone can ever "show how the world really is".  It is all a matter of
selective perception.  Natchwey is showing us *one* aspect of the world as
he has perceived it, one which is all too often conveniently forgotten, but
it is no more or less real than what is shown on ESPN.  Yes, the
consequences are different;  yes, you can argue about importance (although I
contend that that is essentially a social construct too), but it is
impossible to definitively nail down Reality, doubly so where human affairs
are concerned, and triply so when selected, interpreted, and communicated by
someone else.

M.

- --
Martin Howard                     | Armored with good intentions and
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | ignorance, one is impregnable to
email: howard.390@osu.edu         | learning.
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------