Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/11/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Roger L. Beamon wrote: > = > >> Feel better now, Oddmund? > >> -- > >> Roger Beamon > = > >Well, I feel good now. I feel good quite often, unless when I am > >thinking about how the world is going. I should like to do more in ord= er > >to expose the injustice and the lies, and to show the disastrous > >consequences of the wstern/northern expansion, imperialism and cynism.= > = > Now we're getting somewhere, Oddmund. Keep on posting. Tell us more abo= ut > the cynicism, inperialism and expansion of those that you seem to despi= se so. > I am not alone thinking that there are injustices in the world, it is evident. = I don't think we shall start a purely political discussion in this forum. My attitudes are a result of what I have seen, as a photographer and as a citizen. Therefore beeing a photographer also implicates a responsability vis a vis oppressed people all over the world. That is my point of view. = Anybody is free to to what he think is best for him or her. If some of us prefer making photos of the microcosmos, it is up to them. If others prefer to drown themselves into sophisticated, formal questions and aesthetic preoccupations, nobody will stop them. I think documentary photography is more interesting and useful. The Leica history is by the way strongly linked to this kind of photography. Many of the greatest Leica photographers were people who asked questions about their time and also tried to expose injustices and common lies. = I like these people and their work, from Lewis Hine, through FSA to S=E9bastiao Salgado and others today. I consider myself as a part of this= tradition, with or without a Leica. > Keep in mind, though, that they're responsible for the very cameras tha= t you > enjoy, and the films that you *choose* to use. > -- This is not an argument. I cannot stop choosing cameras and films because I don't agree with the system and because I try to fight against the multinational "cancer". That would not change anything. = The question is: what do we use our cameras for? A simple question with a lot of answers. I am not pessimistic about the future and I am very patient. You have to! Regards = Oddmund