Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/21

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Subject: [Leica] "I'm an Endangered Species."
From: h_arche at yahoo.com (H. Ball Arche)
Date: Fri Jul 21 16:37:03 2006

Of course a book is a great idea.
The trick is to find the right format. I think you're
really on to something with the one page anecdotes
(illustrated, of course); the problem is how to work
in the longer narrative/biographical stretches we'd
want to see too. I don't know, maybe make a rule for
yourself like 'don't go more than X number of pages
without a punchline'. You've got a great knack for
putting together a personal short story.

--- Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> wrote:

> OK Crew the posted efforts of the past few days have
> evoked many private and 
> online "You've got to do a book responses!"
> 
> A blog or other suggestions that have given me a
> great deal of confidence 
> just maybe there's a book after all and the first
> publisher was wrong in 
> turning it down.
> 
> 
> 
> I thought this might be a kind of opening piece.
> 
> 
> 
> Now it's my turn to ask.   Comments and critiques?
> 
> ===========================================
> 
> 
> 
> Real Photographers Shoot BW: some times colour.
> 
> 
> 
> Or   "I'm an Endangered Species."
> 
> 
> 
>         Why this book?  Well, I'm basically the sole
> survivor of Canadian
> 
> photojournalists from the 50's and '60's who's still
> shooting in 2006.
> 
> Many from that period have gone to the big dark room
> in the sky or just
> 
> retired to easy living in the country -- So, at 77
> years of age, that makes
> 
> me an endangered species!
> 
> 
> 
> Some photojournalists disgruntled that time passed
> them by, long for the
> 
> good old days of photojournalistic rotogravure
> sections and picture
> 
> magazines we  no longer see published.  Oh sure
> there are magazines, but
> 
> they are the "one picture tell all" illustrations
> and rarely ever use more
> 
> than two pictures to a story.  No longer do we see 6
> - 8 or 10 page spreads
> 
> of in-depth photography for a photo-essay on a
> single subject.
> 
> 
> 
> When my first picture was published in the Ottawa
> Citizen newspaper on
> 
> September 17, 1951, little did I know 56 years later
> I would still be
> 
> taking pictures with the same passion that started
> my career. Probably with
> 
> greater passion to-day realizing I'm quickly coming
> to the final frame on
> 
> the roll.
> 
> 
> 
> Photography has taken me to many countries around
> the world and given me
> 
> experiences that fall into "truth is stranger than
> fiction."  There have
> 
> been good, bad and ugly assignments, some successful
> others just a tiring
> 
> experience of frustration.
> 
> 
> 
> Would I change it?
> 
> 
> 
> Not really!  A few things though, more rest between
> assignments for one, but 
> when
> 
> younger you are invincible and there are too many
> places to go and
> 
> things to shoot.  The telephone rings and even
> though you are dragging it
> 
> matters not when you hear, " Can you get a plane
> down to Bermuda in the
> 
> morning and meet our writer there?".  The adrenalin
> is pumping in seconds
> 
> and off you go like a filly in a race, "Tired? Not
> me I'm outta here!"
> 
> 
> 
> Not to become angry when the weather or some other
> situation is completely
> 
> beyond my control.  In reality I should have sat
> back, relaxed, had a drink
> 
> and just rolled with it.  I used to lose a lot of
> sleep over totally
> 
> uncontrollable things, but time tempers those
> feelings and to-day it's,
> 
> "what you can't control, you don't sweat"
> 
> 
> 
> The stories and anecdotes of the "times of Ted" will
> leave you wondering,
> 
> "is it possible for one photographer to have this
> many experiences?"
> 
> Honestly, yes it is and then some!
> 
> 
> 
> For me, time has never stood still since the taking
> of my first photograph
> 
> and hopefully it won't, until the last. And when
> asked, "When are you
> 
> going to quit or retire?"  I jokingly respond, "My
> retirement date  is
> 
> September 17, 2021."  That will be the 70th
> anniversary of my first
> 
> published picture and I'll only be 92! So that seems
> a reasonable time to
> 
> consider relaxing.
> 
> 
> 
> Now, if I can only get my body to agree to that
> date. . .
> 
> 
> 
> The book's open folks, come on in and start your
> odyssey through my world
> 
> as a photojournalist.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ted Grant Photography Limited
> 1817 Feltham Road
> Victoria BC  V8N 2A4
> 250-477-2156 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for
> more information
> 


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In reply to: Message from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] "I'm an Endangered Species.")