Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Tina Manley jotted down the following: > I think Salgado and Natchwey expect that their photographs will make a > difference in the way the viewer feels or reacts toward the subjects > portrayed and that in the long run their photographs will make a difference > in the world. Upon viewing their photographs you might feel compelled to > contribute to a charity, work for hunger relief, consume less yourself. > You can't really say that about photographs of a flower pot or a sunrise. I wasn't thinking about it solely from the point of view of the photographers, in terms of the photographer's intention. I read Sontag's comments on photography as comments on photography as a phenomenon, not as comments upon photographer's intentions. I agree with you 100% in your assessment of their intention as photographers. I'm also sure that, to some extent, their vision is fulfilled by people who either buy their prints (having part of the funds diverted to the subjects rather than the photographers) or by people who are motivated to contribute monetarily or otherwise through other means. But the interesting thing about photography (or most social phenomena, for that matter) is that you can look at it from a number of different perspectives, and that quite often you find that from a more 'global' perspective, the phenomena takes on characteristics which may not have been the explicit intention of single, one person involved in it. A classic, concrete example: take a group of people, with varying interests, who go to the video store to rent a film. More often than not, they end up with something which no-one in particular within the group wanted to see and which, if they'd been there on their own, no individual member would have rented. I read Sontag's comments as commentary upon the social phenomenon of photography and the disparity between the intentions of individuals involved in it and the greater social characteristics it has taken on. M. - -- Martin Howard | Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU | It is essentially contestable. email: howard.390@osu.edu | www: http://mvhoward.i.am/ +---------------------------------------