[Leica] Our Lady of Guadaloupe

[pdzwig at summaventures.com (Peter Dzwig)]

Alastair Firkin wrote:

> I know I'm going to get unloaded on, but this series does not impress. 
> Far be it for me to say -- world's worst, but I think it needs editing, 
> and somehow, the effect seems very un-Tina like. The light seems very 
> flat, the series is all so "matter of fact" and lacks your usual 
> intimacy. I hate to suggest this, and will probably be booed off the 
> stage, but was the camera making too many of the decisions, does using 
> digital allow too much freedom to push the shutter, is the TLL view less 
> intimate than the rangefinder, is the lens longer than you usually work 
> with. This is not to say that there are not some nice shots, especially 
> when we move into human interaction 38, 14, 27 4718 for example, but I 
> find images like 56 52 4803, 0009, 0007, messy and confusing not really 
> adding to the story. 4743 has an arm in it we could do without. I'm 
> nervous sending this off, so I showed Helen the series without telling 
> her who was the photographer. She was surprised to find whose work it 
> was, and made similar comments to mine.
> 
Sorry Tina, but...I was on the point of posting something similar to 
Alastair.

A church - of any denomination - is dificult to work in and with a few 
exceptions one is always an observer who can't achieve intimacy because the 
prayer is so bound up with the object of their adoration. Even HCB was an 
outsider in these circumstances (check out the photos of masses etc in 
Poland 
and of confessions in "The Europeans"). Your style as Alastair says is often 
"intimate" and several things work against you here, the sheer scale of the 
church with its white walls and large numbers of people and the distance 
bwetween you and the subject.

To take an example the shots of the girls singing could be anywhere, from a 
church to a recording studio. Until, that is, you show them in context but 
then 
they are too far away from you. On the other hand some of the shots of 
glances 
among the subject-family work well because they are intimate moments; but 
then 
they don't say anything about being in church.

Great shame because your photos are normally ones that I make a point of 
going 
through, for a masterclass in how to do intimate photography in difficult 
circumstances and to **understand** how people live in areas which I am 
unlikely 
ever to go to.


Peter Dzwig