[leica] photographing the homeless

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

At 06:55 PM 1/19/2007, Kyle Cassidy wrote:

>george sed:

George?

I didn't change my name :-)


> >I think the question to ask is: in the end, are you doing it for your own
> >benefits, their benefits, or other people's benefits?
>
>i dont think that's quite it -- i don't think there's necessarily a 
>qualification at all that you have to be doing it to _help_ someone else, 
>but rather that you'll be honest to someone else -- let's say you're 
>photographing someone who you find morally reprehensible -- i'll use the 
>KKK as an example -- let's say you're tasked to photograph them -- i dont 
>think that you have an obligation to take a photograph that _benefits_ the 
>KKK -- and i think this is true for homeless people and any other 
>photograph you take -- i think you have an obligation to _photograph them 
>well_.

Only if you are a professional and you are asked to do it.

>that means, if your editor sends you to photograph the KKK, or the 
>American Nazi Party, or the Taliban, or whomever,  that you'll spend the 
>time with them to know them, know their names, know their ideas, and that 
>you'll take a photograph that isn't cheap, that is a photograph that is 
>the best photograph you can take and that represents your subjects as 
>_honestly_ as time and circumstances permit. and that you will use this 
>same photographic integrity when you photograph the homeless and when you 
>photograph the queen of england.

Very true words. I guess I will never be a good photojournalist in that 
sense. Thanks for all the words. Illuminating.

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)