Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/01/13

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Subject: [Leica] When in doubt ask photographer
From: sonc.hegr at gmail.com (Sonny Carter)
Date: Sun Jan 13 12:20:26 2008
References: <a3f189160801130822i581a592bkbca3b8a544789645@mail.gmail.com> <0JUL004VLH3LJM50@l-daemon>

In another life I shot health segments for CNN and later for the ABC station
in New Orleans.  It was my experience the Doctors would magically change
when the cameras arrived.  It did not take long however, for them to get
engrossed in what they were doing, and I would "become invisible."   I have
tons of shots in O.R.s, in churches, and  on sidelines, among other places
that seems like my massive self  has disappeared.   That is technique, just
as surely as the way that I hold a camera is.  I don't think for a moment
that they have totally forgotten me, or that I am  really invisible to their
eyes.

If you walk into a convenience store in West Monroe, Louisiana wearing
Birkenstocks and shorts, the crowd in there will react much differently than
if you come in wearing muddy Cammo overalls.

That's very different from entering a surgery suite with Doctors you have
established a relationship with over many weeks.   Also different from a
home in Honduras where you've joined a family for daily activities and
operate in a fly on the wall mode.

I've spent time in both surgical suites and tiny huts in rural Honduras, and
I believe my resulting photography was  truthful;  but I'd bet that the
dynamics of both places  operate  differently without  us there.


Sonny

On 1/13/08, Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> Sonny offered:
>
> >>My experience with Doctors suggests that they ALWAYS act more "official"
>
> when a camera is present.<<<
>
> Hi Sonny,
>
> But you're saying that in relation to a short time, maybe an hour or so
> with
> the doctor? Not over a two or three week or months of working with them
> daily?
>
> ted
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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>

Replies: Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] When in doubt ask photographer)
In reply to: Message from sonc.hegr at gmail.com (Sonny Carter) ([Leica] When in doubt ask photographer)
Message from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] When in doubt ask photographer)