Re: [Leica] Documentary Photography 2003

[Eric Welch <eric@jphotog.com>]

on 07/01/03 4:30 PM, Teresa299@aol.com at Teresa299@aol.com wrote:

> So George is pretty much right, the realm of documentary photography is
> dying a slow death, only to be replaced with sanitized staged photos of child
> (and 
> eventually adult) models attempting to emulate real life situations?  At what
> point other than the far reaches of Amazonian forest or tibetan mountains is
> all documentary photography not much more than stock photography at worst,
> "reality" TV at best?

Well, having to spend many, many hours cruising the major stock photography
sites on a regular basis trolling for photos for our publications, I can
tell you the stock photography market is already in incredibly sad shape.
Lousy photography, everything looks staged, unreal, poor quality,
manipulated colors, boring, boring BORING!!!!!

But documentary photography is alive and well. The true skill of a
photographer to gain the trust of a subject is very important and will
always gain access to places most photographers will never see.

Eugene Richards is one example of a photographer who gets into unbelievable
wild and crazy places. Or very intimate places where the rest of us would
never even ask to go. I have a lot of respect for photographers who can work
with compassion in difficult situations. I've had to do it enough to know
just how hard it is.

I've done documentary work on hospice nurses, and people dying, mentally and
physically handicapped. Dead bodies lying on the ground and victims of
crimes to mention a few. Probably the hardest has been covering domestic
abuse, which I did two different times.

I have yet to have been thrown out, or rejected because of insensitivity.
Though I have been accosted at accident scenes (and most of the time the
police pull them off me) when the person self-righteously takes on the role
of censor in an ill-informed attempt to "protect" the victims.

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA
http://www.jphotog.com

I think not,  said Descartes, and disappeared.

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