Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Ok everyone hates it, so I'll play devils advocate. I don't have a problem with it. It's an idea, one that seems to appeal to the gallery types. Good. No, I don't like the "waxy finish" she puts on the pics, either. But then, I'm not buying :-) As for the kids, well, I grew up in an "extended family." My mom was the oldest of 5, and my youngest aunt was only 5 years older than I. Also tons of other relatives all over the Syracuse, NY area. I was cared for daily by my grandma with the 4 aunts/uncles all packed into a tiny post WWII house. While I was "the baby," I was also the "runt" of the aunt/uncle pack, and oh the torments - children are so, so very cruel. Thrown out naked into the snow (Syracuse, NY), told I was going to the "funny farm," subject to fake trances and terrorized by the "zombies" my aunt and her friend would become. Oh yeah, my (clever but nasty) aunt would put marks on the wall above my actual height (you know, the marks to show you are growing), and tell me I was shrinking!!! You get the idea. Of course, I also knew I had a gadzillion relatives who would and did take care of me, and I fondly remember those times despite the childish torments. It was a different time. I also roamed freely and explored the neighborhoods at the ripe old age of 5. I met some scary kids - once some older kids with bike chains about to rumble with blacks (desegregation issues, I guess). Another older roughneck playing basketball loudly shouted "James Dean" every time he shot the ball - scared the hell out of me. Another group of kids lived in a big fancy house up the hill, but saddly their parents were raging alcholics, with attendant nasty dynamics. But then, childhood basically sucks. I recall being deathly afraid of turtleneck shirts and sweaters because I thought they would take my little head off when removed. I ate plenty of poison berries and yummy "candy" from the medicine chest and had my tiny little stomach pumped on many occasions. I was also asthmatic, and went to hospitals frequently, having to wear the "papoose" (straight jacket) so I wouldn't hit the nurses. My oldest aunt took me to see "Snow White" at a drive in, but the fireworks afterwards scrared me and kept me away from movies for quite some time. (She later took me to Jaws with her fiance, which then made me deathly afraid of sharks, but OTOH, I was physically carried into the theater to see "The Sound of Music" when I had mono - so good times, bad times). Whatever - childhood just isn't all that much fun all the time. My own toddler nephews seem to autonomously alternate between laughing and sobbing about every 1/2 hour or so. Hell, just saying "No!" at a nephew as he entertains climbing up on a chair and fiddling with my Leicas is enough to start a good 15 minutes of sobbing. From this vantage point, taking away a lollipop and snapping a picture does not bother me one little bit. I do not think the parents were in moral error. It's just not that big a deal. I don't care. The children will be fine, in fact, very, very likely better than fine if their parents are the sorts that can afford a formal portrait from a real photographer (not Sears) or even hang out in the "fine art photography" world. Hard to make a buck in the photography world. If shock sells, then I say, deliver shock. Got her a gallery showing - I say go for it. Scott p.s. OT: Oddly, I'm about to become a father, and the modern regimen of sheltering children and coordinating their activities with "play dates" and other structured activities I personally think completely SUCKS. By the age of 6 or so, I could actually deal with adults in a somewhat mature manner, including adults I didn't know well (because of the large extended family and probably church back then). The kids I meet today are, by comparison, completely socially retarded. My mother is gone, but my father lives only 45 minutes away. I also have two brothers nearby. I'll be shuffling off my little tike to these adult relatives as often as possible - get him used to different authority figures, let him fight with his little cousins, learn new patterns of daily life (Dad's a vegan), learn to interact with people of different social classes and skin colors (one bro' lives in a mostly black and military personnel neighborhood) and so on and so forth. Tina Manley wrote: > LUG: > > There is a fierce debate going on over on PhotoPro about this > photographer's work: > http://www.paulkopeikingallery.com/artists/greenberg/exhibitions/endtimes/index.htm > > > > She deliberately provokes children in order to photograph them with > distressed expressions. What is the LUG's opinion? Of the > photography and of the methods used? > > Here is one opinion and some rebuttal > http://thomashawk.com/2006/04/jill-greenberg-is-sick-woman-who.html > > Tina > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Pics @ http://www.adrenaline.com/snaps Leica M6TTL, Bessa R, Nikon FM3a, Nikon D70, Rollei AFM35 (Jihad Sigint NSA FBI Patriot Act)