[Leica] Photographic people

[Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com>]

on 7/13/01 8:42 AM, Leica Users digest at
owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us thoughtfully wrote:

> "There is something appalling about photographing people. It is certainly
> some form of violation. So if sensitivity is lacking, there can be
> something barbaric about it."

I suppose the same can be said about inept writers.

Creating any portrait is as much about the photographer as the subject.
After all, you have to SEE. Better, you have to SEE and have a form of
communication with the subject, perhaps that communication is a certain
empathy, perhaps from a spoken dialog, perhaps subliminal.

Is observing humankind a violation?

I don't think so. I think it's a reaching out, a search to understand, to
reveal.

Sure, some revelations can be unkind and even cruel. And some can be kind
and be total lies.

But the act of looking, of seeking to bond in that moment, and to express
the human condition is what art is all about.

So I think Henri Cartier-Bresson was diminishing photography from other
portrait art forms. Of course I didn't read the whole quote.

Adam Bridge
Split Second Films