Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/26

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Subject: [Leica] re: armed america
From: bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Mon Jun 26 17:30:59 2006

I have absolutely no interest in engaging with any of them - but I want to
see them. And when I see them I do see what Kyle is trying to show us;  that
is that gun owners come in all shapes and sizes; that one size doesn't fit
all; that not every gun owner is a cross between G. Gordon Liddy and Rambo;
that not every clean scrubbed Mormon couple is necessarily what they seem,
and so on. No, it's not an accurate representation of gun owners because the
group is made up of people willing to be photographed, which right away
separates them from the mass of gun owners, or any other group.

What, by the way, is New Yorker style fiction? Is it the fiction of John
Cheever? Annie Proulex? Roger Angell? Raymond Carver? Truman Capote? Woody
Allen? E. L. Doctrow? John O'Hara? Or J. D. Salinger?


On 6/26/06 8:11 PM, "Adam Bridge" <abridge@gmail.com> wrote:

> Kyle,
> 
> It's a very homogeneous universe you portray and I can't seem to
> engage with it or feel that you have a sympathy with it. I have this
> strange reaction that it's like the cynical narcissistic "New
> Yorker"-style of fiction - obeservation with no compassion - just the
> need to look.
> 
> If this is for a book then what's the point? Only pictures? An essay
> with them? What? Because I'd be VERY wary of participating -  who
> knows what sort of editorial stance you're going to take - or your
> editor will take. "Boy, we can make these guys look like real rubes."
> I'm not saying YOU are saying that but I can't believe it doesn't run
> rampant through the minds of people you ask.
> 
> In addition to being almost all white it's lacking in class breadth as 
> well.
> 
> The important thing, really, aren't the images, it's what you know
> about the people inside the photos - why they have these weapons, why
> they keep them, what it matters, why they chose to let you photograph
> them.
> 
> I want to CONNECT with these people and I don't - the formalism in
> many - proper poses of people and pets - keeps me from engaging.
> 
> Adam Bridge
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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Replies: Reply from reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid) ([Leica] re: armed america)
In reply to: Message from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] re: armed america)