Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/03/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:46:39 -0700 >From: Gary Todoroff <datamaster@northcoastphotos.com> >Interesting shot by itself, Kyle, but the "drama" seems a bit staged, >especially the darkroom manipulation. Mostly though, it doesn't fit >the style of your excellent environmental portraits I've enjoyed so >much. To fit your series, maybe if there were a picnic basket and >checkered table cloth in the background, along with a bright-eyed terrier . >. . ha :-) At the moment I'm thinking this might be the time to cash in on some magazine assignments so I'm not turning down any opportunities to broaden my portfolio. >You have captured a "friendly menace" in most of your gun portraits >that makes me want to be on their side . . . or they on mine. You've >probably encountered dozens of different reactions to that series. >Along with the fine captures, I think that is probably what makes the >portfolio so unique. I must say, I'm enthralled by the phrase "friendly menace" -- and I think that's probably an apt description of that portfolio. It's very interesting to me that depending on where you are in America or the world that those images either look shocking or completely normal. In some of those houses guns were locked up in closets or trunks for years, but in others, dad walking around with a pistol on his hip while the kids play with legoes isn't anything out of the ordinary. One of the places we stopped on the trip was an office building in central Wisconsin where people routinely (or at least not _irregularly_) brought their rifles into work with them so they could hit the deer stand on the way home and it wasn't unusal for someone to bring a rifle into the cafeteria and show it off to their co-workers. An act perfectly normal in some places in America and one that would result in the state police showing up and surrounding the building elsewhere.