[Leica] Re: interacting with strangers -- a very important element of photography

["Rob Appleby" <rob@robertappleby.com>]

>>>
Jeffery:

>I would have
>loved to have gotten an image of the obvious pain and swollen, weary eyes
>but I would have felt like a heel. I'm sure that there would have been a
way
>to approach him anyway, but I was out of my league on this one.

I don't understand why you'd love to have an image of somebody else's
suffering.

I can sort of understand a photojournalist doing a story about life on the
river or about the capsizing itself wanting an image of the guy...to
complete the set, so to speak.

I'm genuinely curious.  What motivates people to want to take pictures of
others who are suffering?


Eric
>>>

I think there's a variety of motivations. When I started taking pictures in
India, which was the beginning of photography for  me, I thought I was doing
something significant by photographing lepers and street people etc. Of
course it was just visual tourism and pretty immature and stupid behaviour.
Then I became interested in people's predicaments and stories and began
trying to tell the stories visually. That was maybe more excusable, at least
I like to think so. The more I go into it, the more I'm interested in the
personal and particular, rather than in big themes like "poverty" or (heaven
help us) "migrations" which use people to illustrate a thesis (my dislike
for SS's basic project - not his talent - grows daily). So nowadays I take
pictures of people in trouble (when I do, which is not always by any means)
because I think it's valuable to highlight the injustices they have suffered
and how they deal with them. How noble! Interestingly enough, however,
people who have been unjustly treated (whether by bombardment or the bank)
very often want to tell their story and welcome an outsider to tell it to.

No doubt other people will have other reasons. Nonetheless, I see it as part
of the essential project of photography, to tell what it's like to wallow
and roll in the mud of life, as we all do.

There's a Zen saying (of course there is!): "suffering is the bread we eat".
Now wasn't that interesting.

http://www.robertappleby.com
Mobile (Italy) 348 336 7990

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html