[Leica] Re : Nachtwey's Capas, >> >Salgados, Evans, etc

["Michael Darnton" <mdarnton@hotmail.com>]

I was just going to let this whole thread pass on, but.....
I was looking at photo books at the bookstore the other day. There are a lot 
of anthologies and collections out right now--things on the 20th Century, 
news collections, and such. It was really depressing (and, what the heck, 
demeaning of humanity) to see most of them filled with Nachtwey, Capa, 
Salgado, Evans, etc. If you could see only those books you'd think the whole 
of the human experience was about wars, starvation, death--a very tiny part 
of the general human picture, and something which, for instance, has 
absolutely nothing to do with my life or that of anyone I know or have ever 
known.

If that's the only photos worth remembering in the long term history of 
mankind, then I say the quicker we pop a bomb and destroy the whole mess of 
shit the better for everything on this planet. They may be memorable 
pictures, but they _sell_ in magazines because they appeal to the morbid, 
sensationalistic, voyeur instinct that makes the National Enquirer 
attractive and makes us slow down at car wrecks. The photographers may 
indeed be great photographers, and I admit they are, but the pictures are 
bought not because they're great, but because of their appeal to lower 
instincts of the average magazine reader, not to the very limited market of 
appreciators of photography.

- --Michael Darnton

ORIGINAL MESSAGES:::
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:56:28 +0200
From: "Christian Louis" <christian.louis@skynet.be>
Subject: [Leica] Re : Nachtwey's Capas, >> >Salgados, Evans, etc.
Message-ID: <20000627115602.9FE79181B9@trinity.skynet.be>References:
>I will now proceed to piss off many of my fellow LUGers and say thatin
>> >terms of the long haul, in terms of the history of mankind, the only
>> >photographers whose work will be worth remembering are the
>>Nachtwey's Capas,
>> >Salgados, Evans, etc. etc....and I certainly put some members of
>>this group>> >in  that catagory. Photos of mountains, grandchildren,
>>seascapes, etc., are>> >very nice, but ultimately meaningless.>> >>> >B. 
>>D.
Difficult to say it better. thank you for the quality of your adviceC. Louis
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