Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/01/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Dorothea Lange is one of the photographers that helps me keep sane about being less than perfect, both in photography and life in general. The results of her work had a tremendous effect on certain elements of the social system, particularly here in the Central Valley of California and other farming regions where migrant workers are prevalent. But as a photographic technician and in other areas of her life, she was apparently much less than perfect. (How does one lose the results of six months of shooting when working on what was essentially a contract basis for the government)? I see a lot of self doubt on the LUG and the IRC #Leica group about the quality of their work, worries about offending someone, worries about being too shy. I see people madly trying 50 different film emulsions, people worrying about what developer to use...worrying about not understanding the zone system.... Whenever I recognize that I am feeling these doubts and am getting overly technical, I re-read Lange's biography (I use the Meltzer biography)...and realize that I am human and I am not dead yet...so onward and upward, as it were. Of course my favorite Ansel Adams' photographs are "Family at Melones" (1953) and "Annette Rosenshine" (1968), so take my comment within that context. Regards, Bill Larsen from California's Heartland Oliver Bryk writes: | A few days ago I visited the Dorothea Lange exhibit at the National | Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA. (Lange's prints are on loan from the | Oakland Museum). One of her prominently displayed quotations reads: "One | should use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind." | Oliver Bryk - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html