[Leica] How about this one?

[images at comporium.net (Tina Manley)]

I agree totally!  My slant has always been to show the families in a
way that would encourage donations for the self-help agencies that
facilitated my stays in the rural communities.  That was not hard
since the need was so evident.  I never changed anything to try to
make circumstances look worse that they were.  That was never
necessary.

Tina

On Sat, Jun 9, 2012 at 8:17 PM, B. D. Colen <bd at bdcolenphoto.com> wrote:
> Several things:
>
> The first thing I tell my students is that objectivity is a myth. Every 
> time we approach a shoot we bring to it our entire life's history; our 
> prejudices, our likes and dislikes, our fears, our preconceived notions of 
> every sort, every book we've read, every course we've taken, and so on. 
> All we can do is be acutely aware of all these things, and strive to be 
> fair and honest in our approach to our subjects. Because the one thing we 
> absolutely owe them is honesty.
>
> As to the presence of a camera radically changing the reality - I 
> disagree. Yes, when you first enter a situation people may play to the 
> camera. But I've found that very quickly they ignore the camera and go 
> about their lives. I think we tend to forget how ubiquitous how cameras, 
> whether Leicas, iPhones, or point-and-shoots have become.
>
> Finally, I won't put money on this - but I don't think HCB had the guy do 
> anything. He was shooting through a hole in a fence, and shot a series of 
> people as they tried to get across the puddle. The best of the images he 
> got was of the famous jumper. At least I believe that's correct.
>
>
> Typed with big fingers on tiny keys
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phil Swango <pswango at att.net>
> Sender: lug-bounces+bd=bdcolenphoto.com at leica-users.org
> Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2012 15:45:11
> To: LUG<lug at leica-users.org>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] How about this one?
>
> Tina Manley wrote:
> I am very interested in that book and have ordered it. ?The
> documentary tradition that I learned and have tried to apply is that
> you change absolutely nothing for a photo.
> ================================================
>
> That's how I have worked too, when doing documentary things. But still, any
> two photogs will have their own visual ideas, stylistic and otherwise, and
> it's hard to call one neutral and the other biased. ?Your familiarity with
> your subjects in domestic settings allows you to notice significant details
> that I would probably miss. ?I bet if we worked together in the same
> setting we would come up with very different "stories" in our pictures.
> Both might be accurate and true, but I'm not sure I'd call either one
> "neutral."
>
> I recently had an interesting talk with a museum lecturer about a photo by
> a famous southern photographer. ?She was obviously having strong reactions
> to elements in the picture that spoke to her own childhood memories, where
> I wasn't having the same thoughts. ?The same impulses (emotions and
> memories) are at work when you're *taking* pictures too.
>
> In the Muybridge book I mentioned earlier, the author uses the examples of
> Muybridge and Carleton Watkins to contrast two distinct approaches to
> photographing Yosemite back in the day. ?Watkins looked for serene majestic
> beauty and found it; Muybridge was attracted to wildness and complexity,
> and he found that too.
>
> And thank goodness we have both versions today.
>
>
> --
> Phil Swango
> 307 Aliso Dr SE
> Albuquerque, NM 87108
> 505-262-4085
>
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-- 
Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com