Re: Leicaphilia

[ireland@blazenet.net (Robert Brummett)]

>ted grant wrote:
>
>> And as far as buying prints of those I like, I prefer to collect books for my
>> personal library, as without books to learn photography, it is like trying to
>> sail the oceans without charts. It is a much greater value for the dollars
>>than
>> a single print hanging on the wall.
>
>I, too, am a collector of books, not prints.  One of the beauties of
>photography is that it is accessible to almost anyone.  Painting and
>sculpture and other "art" is unique and only for a few.
>
>Photography is the communication for the masses (listening, Oddmund??),
>a way to move people across languages and cultures.  And I'd rather have
>my dogeared copy of the "Family of Man" or the "Creation" by Ernst Haas
>that I can haul down to the local coffee house and get lost in than any
>number of "original" prints hanging in my home.
>
>Even with my advertising work, it is nice to touch many people.  I shot
>the composite photo on the cover of TurboTax/MacinTax software package
>that had a print run of 7 million, plus all the catalogues and ads.  It
>feels good to have my work seen by many, many people.  To me, prints and
>transparencies are just the raw materials that take you to the printed
>page where everyone has access.
>
>Think of the iconic images--like the street execution in Viet Nam by
>Eddie Adams or the Kissing photos of Eisenstadt or Doisneau (sp?)--that
>have become part of our cultural mythology, not because they are
>precious work of art, but because they are both powerful and SEEN via
>mass media.
>
>There is one image by Dmitri Kessel I would like to own an original
>print of, maybe one or two by Emil Schultheiss, but beyond that, give me
>books (like Ted's).
>
>Maybe it is just the journalist in me.
>
>Donal Philby
>San Diego

Donal-

I've no essential quarrel with anything you've said in your post. But as a
photographer who makes part of his living through the sale of original
prints, it is a little depressing to hear such well-reasoned arguments
about why NOT to buy prints coming from fellow photographers.

Robert