[Leica] WAS Re: Even more Adelaide photos from Brian's visit Now Irony or something

[hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson)]

Would you guys mind changing your thread title please? Thanks a lot.
-- 
Cheers
Geoff
'Life's too short for mediocre glass'
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/gh/a/
http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman


2009/3/24 Steve Barbour kididdoc at cox.net
On Mar 23, 2009, at 2:04 AM, Marty Deveney wrote:
Very good - but it doesn't count if you make your own irony or weirdness ;-)

I suspect if that the most Shulman'esque image you could find find in China,
well then,  my  (fuzzy) thinking is a little less fuzzy...  (who is that
____head anyway?)
:-)

(here again)


  a very interesting comment Marty, it really got me thinking.
>>>>> Is there a place in the world not fruitful for Jim's style of
>>>>> observation?
>>>>> Then I  realized that it varies a lot...with some places much less
>>>>> fruitful...even in the civilized world.
>>>>> we don't have to get into that right now...
>>>>> but my very simplistic impression is that  the very unfruitful areas
>>>>> may
>>>>> be limited to third world parts of the globe...
>>>>> I wonder if that is seen by veteran travelers as an oversimplification,
>>>>> somehow  unfair,
>>>>>
>>>>
>
> thanks Steve
>
>
>
>> On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 2:33 PM, Jim Shulman <jshul at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Not just America:
>>> I also seemed to have good luck in China, Marty
>>>
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/focusit/the+great+shmuck+of+china.JPG.html
>>> Of course, I paid a fellow several yuan to push the shutter button on my
>>> M3.
>>>
>>> Jim Shulman
>>> Wynnewood, PA
>>>
>>> Steve asks a very on-topic question about the kind of photography people
>>> do
>>> with their Leicas and Leica-like cameras.
>>> To me, Jim's photos are characterised by irony (in the true sense - where
>>> the literal and the actual implied meanings of the photographs are
>>> opposite
>>> or fundamentally incongruent) and poking fun at western society.
>>>  Anywhere
>>> where society is fundamentally different (as it is almost everywhere else
>>> in the world) a person doesn't have a sufficient context to poke the same
>>> kind
>>> of fun.  You can see this in my photos of Russia:
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene/Russia/ and Japan:
>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene/Japan/ which (to me) say
>>> more
>>> "this is really forgeign and that amkes it different" rather than "look
>>> at
>>> this weirdness".
>>>
>>> The side of life that many of Jim's photos point out as humorous are
>>> dependant on wealth and a relative lack of self-consciousness.  The
>>> following examples are from my experience and might vary depending on
>>> where
>>> you go in a given place.  In Japan, for instance, people maintain a very
>>> careful public image most of the time, making these kinds of shots
>>> impossible.  In a lot of parts of Scandinavia, almost everyone is very
>>> fit
>>> and attractive, removing one of Jim's obvious sources of humour.
>>>
>>> But more than anything, walker Evans' old nemesis, prosperity, removes a
>>> lot of the good-natured aspects of public life.  People become more
>>> self-conscious, change how they act and look and take on a more serious
>>> general demeanour.  This interferes with the kinds of scenes Jim
>>> captures.
>>> Adelaide is the least economically developed Australian mainland city of
>>> its size and in many ways its residents are very natural and lack
>>> self-consciousness.  A lot of obviously incongruous things happen.  I
>>> doubt
>>> Jim would do very well in the middle of Sydney or Melbourne.
>>>
>>> Analysis is always personal; anyone who posts a themed body of work to
>>> the
>>> LuG gets a lot of attention and analysis from me.  I don't always post
>>> about it, but I am always looking and thinking.
>>>
>>> Marty
>>>
>>>  On Mar 22, 2009, at 4:37 AM, Marty Deveney wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> No, but we're trying to get him to visit.  There's plenty of fruitful
>>>>> areas around here for Jim's style of observation.
>>>>> a very interesting comment Marty, it really got me thinking.
>>>>> Is there a place in the world not fruitful for Jim's style of
>>>>> observation?
>>>>
>>>>   Then I  realized that it varies a lot...with some places much less
>>>>> fruitful...even in the civilized world.
>>>>> we don't have to get into that right now...
>>>>> but my very simplistic impression is that  the very unfruitful areas
>>>>> may
>>>>> be limited to third world parts of the globe...
>>>>> I wonder if that is seen by veteran travelers as an oversimplification,
>>>>> somehow  unfair,
>>>>>
>>>>
>
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