Re: [Leica] worth remembering

[Harrison McClary <harrison@mcclary.net>]

>
>What do they care about, and what will they care about?
>
>Go to a place where a house is burning down. Watch the woman of the family as
>she hurridly shoves the kids out the door and then, in the last 5 seconds in
>her flaming home, has one chance to grab something. What does she grab? --
>and as a news reporter I can tell you this is invariably the case?
>
>The family photo albums, that's what.

Charlie is onto something here, I think.  I have spent much of my 
career as a news-photographer and have in recent years realized that 
the photos people look back on to and hold in their memories are not 
those momentums images that are part of the "public" conscious such 
as the Eddie Adams photo or others. The photos people look at are the 
old shots of their cities, town and home area.  The photos of their 
relatives as kids, the photos that show the common person in his/her 
element, after all we all consider ourselves common, normal, part of 
the status quo.  Very few are part of international events and in the 
great scheme of living our daily lives those major events fade into 
white noise that, while important, pale in comparison to our child's 
first steps, words, the struggle of earning our daily bread, the 
simple process of living.

I have photos of Presidents, winners of Supper Bowls, World Series's, 
Master's golf,  a photo of the three pitchers who pitched the first 
ever combined no hitter in the National League baseball division, yet 
of far more import to me are the photos of my daughter I have made 
over the past few years.

Photos such as Natchwey, Salgado, Chris Morris and others make are 
very important and need to be made to inform and appal, and remind us 
that such things do happen, but other kinds of photographs are 
equally important and should not be discounted for lack of 
news/social change value.

To document life on has to go no further than what lies in front of 
him.  The Leica M is probably the best tool for documentary 
photography made, use it and do not sweat the "import" of the photos 
you are making.  File them, id them and your great great grand kids 
will enjoy looking at them.
- -- 
Harrison McClary
http://www.mcclary.net