Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/04/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]About 'our' motivation to photograph. This past Saturday, my students were showing roughs of their semester projects. One young woman has been shooting at a center for the developmentally disabled - aw, hell, the retarded - focusing on an art program they have. She showed an image that was a close up of two people's hands awkwardly touching - a striking image - and my TA noted that this image was a good one for us to think about in terms of addressing the question 'when is photo journalism/documentary photography, voyeurism?' So we talked about it for a while and then I asked the student, 'why did you take this photo?' Her response: "I thought it would be a great photo!" No bullshit. No 'I want to help people.' No BS about 'understanding.' Just the bottom line - she's a photographer, and the image leapt out at her. And that, in my humble opinion, is what IT really is all about. We may take photos for various economic, personal, political, journalistic reasons. But if we really are the beast called photographers, it call comes down to "I thought it would be a great photo!" B. D. -----Original Message----- From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Mark Rabiner Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 2:58 PM To: Leica Users Group Subject: Re: [Leica] That's it, I'm throwing my cameras in the river > | > Still that is a nice thing that you mentioned that we feel threatened > by somebody elses expertise . An old remnant from our reptilian days > probably. Still whatever the cause whenever one feels threatened it > makes sense to explore why and take action. > And remove either the thread or the mechanism that caused the false > warning. > In this case one could question ones motive to photograph at all.Apart > from making a living . > interesting thanks > simon > > > Much of this is just the mystique of the still image. Mark Rabiner Photography Portland Oregon New-improved http://rabinergroup.com/ _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information