Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Nathan wrote: >>> Sure, HCB, Willy Ronis, Brassai and many others have made beautiful images of > Parisian couples. But I do not see why that should stop me. For one, my couple is > different from their couples--dressed differently, different expressions etc. But > more importantly, it is MY image--maybe better, most likely not better than > theirs, but MINE.<<<<< Hi Nathan, My heavens if we all stopped photographing life as we see it daily just because someone did 50 years ago.... possibly me while shooting my documentaries .... wouldn't that be sad? Or we all stopped taking pictures because HCB shot some kid carrying a bottle of wine? Should we then stop photographing a child carrying a jug of milk? Or a bottle of wine? A picture exposed today can not be repeated tomorrow.... maybe close but not identical! Therefore it's different, the light, the eyes, the colour of the sky, the moment of exposure is always different, therefore why would anyone even suggest that everything has been done so why take more photographs of it? Neither photography nor imagination stand still, look at AA's big mountain pictures or Moon over whatever, has anyone ever made it exactly the same? Close maybe, but identical? Never. Is there not a challenge to imaginative photographers as soon as we see a scenic for example, a challenge to do it better or different ? If we think again for a moment about the AA moon picture, just because he created this wonderful picture, no matter how he did it, should millions of photographers never photograph that location again or any other millions of locations with mountains and moons and a village? And as Nathan has said.....>>But more importantly, it is MY image--maybe better, most likely not better than theirs, but MINE.<<<<< Exactly!!!!! And this is what it's all about each and every one of us take or shoot our "OWN" pictures. No matter how I can be controlled by others and stupid regulations, dumb bureaucrats and their regulations.... photography is absolutely mine and mine alone as I see and record moments. My cameras may be taken from me but the ability to see picture moments never will be because they're mine, not anyone else's and even though I may photograph the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel Tower it will be different because it's mine and nobody will have taken it before or after.... close.... but not like mine! I believe B.D. wrote: > > > So the question then, might be 'why am I taking this photo?'<<<< Very simple old buddy, because I was motivated by what I saw the moment I looked at it, therefore I photographed it. Did I have any thought of copying or that it had been done before? Nope, because at that moment I was recording "MY PICTURE" which had absolutely nothing to do with the millions before. ;-) What was I going to do with it? Not relevant to the question, "if it was shot before why should I do it again?" I suppose like climbing Mount Everest and being asked "it's been done before so why did you do it??" Because it was there and the same can be applied to taking pictures that have been taken before, "because the scene was there!" ted Ted Grant Photography Limited www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html