Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/08/25

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Subject: [Leica] Walker Evans--digital reproductions
From: bd at bdcolenphoto.com (B. D. Colen)
Date: Fri Aug 25 08:41:18 2006

Actually, I found this "pretentious twerp" quite insightful, in that he
raises and deals with important issues. Photography is no more the "people's
medium" than is drawing or painting - every kid draws and paints in school;
not every kid photographs. For every talented painter or illustrator, there
are countless thousands of hacks, as is the case with photography. But
that's beside the point. The real questions raised and explored in the piece
are about what photography is or isn't, and how much the original artist's
vision should be seen as the last word, if you will, on a particular image.


On 8/25/06 10:59 AM, "Don Dory" <don.dory@gmail.com> wrote:

> Lee,
> The reviewer is a pretentious twerp IMHO.  In the first paragraphs he 
> admits
> that Walker Evans wasn't especially interested in the printing of the
> images.  So, if a later person comes along and finds another story in the
> images then so what? (Assuming the pedigree of the images is clearly
> stated)  What I got out of the reviewer was angst that the actual image
> could be gorgeous even though the content frequently was depressing.
> 
> The truth of photography is that it is the peoples medium and the folks do
> what they will with the images.  As a photographer, the only way to control
> your images is to destroy the originals when you are done with them.
> Otherwise, someone else may come along and re interpret what you did or
> didn't do.
> 
> If you have a problem with loss of control then take up painting, but even
> there someone may come along a few hundred years later and "restore" the
> painting ala the Cistine Chapel.
> 
> 0.02
> 
> Don
> don.dory@gmail.com
> 
> On 8/25/06, Lee England <Engl6914@cableone.net> wrote:
>> 
>> An interesting article I ran into in this morning's New York Times on an
>> exhibit of digital reproductions of Walker Evan's prints and the problems
>> associated with their interpretation.
>> 
>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/arts/design/25evan.html
>> 
>> Lee England
>> Natchez, Mississippi
>> 
>> 
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> 
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Replies: Reply from chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich) ([Leica] Walker Evans--digital reproductions)
Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Walker Evans--digital reproductions)
In reply to: Message from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Walker Evans--digital reproductions)