Re: Leicaphilia

[Oddmund Garvik <garvik@i-t.fr>]

At 17:55 30/04/1997 EDT, Ted Grant wrote:

>Oddman I believe you misinterpreted what my comment meant.  I merely used
that
>phrase in relation to "enthusiasm of taking action after being motivated
by the
>book, "75 Years of Leica Photography".  I have looked through this collection

Yes, I might have misinterpreted you!

>I don't quite agree with you here if I'm understanding you correctly in that
>"you have an idea of what you are going to shoot before you go out." Is that
>correct?  If it is, then I don't agree, as I feel one should have a
totally open
>mind, as that allows you to see the world with a clear head and eyes and not
>constricted to a fixed position.

I was thinking about this in more general terms, having a point of view, an
outlook, etc.
Of course we never know exactly what we find. That is part of the mystery.
I always have a camera in the pocket, and many of my pictures are purely
'impressionistic', found along the road.
   
>Not so at all, unless you are looking at different books than I have in my
>family library! I have the work of Donald McCullin, Cartier-Bresson,
>Eisenstaedt, Yousf Karsh, David Douglas Duncan, Eugene Smith, Lewis Hine
Robert
>Vishniak, Alfred Stieglitz, Marc Riboud, Robert Capa, Doisneau, 
>and Andre Kertesz.  And that names only a few, with many others of lesser
>stature and they all have messages, excitement and you name it! 

You mention photographers I like very much and respect. I didn't think
about these pictures. I was thinking about all the commercial 'chit-chat',
advertisement pix, and 'artistic' exercises pouring out at every street
corner. These are sometimes nice, licked, well composed images, but far too
trivial to survive. They are just part of the image pollution and I am long
ago fed up of them. 

>And every time I go back and look at them it is a refreshing breath of
>inspirational air at the beauty and imagination displayed, that in turn
creates
>a burning desire to be better a photographer.

Yes, you are right! Books are important. My books are in cardboard boxes
for the moment. We are not established yet, waiting for our farm to be
inhabitable. I think your list above also covers many of my books BTW. 

I think exhibitions are important as well, even paintings at museums. I
have spent months at 'Louvre' looking at the old Flemish masters. I have
learned a lot about street photography and group portraits this way. When I
left Paris, I was afraid of loosing the opportunity of going to exhibitions. 

The other day we went shopping in a nearby town, Tours, and I found two
photo exhibitions! One with images from China by Marc Riboud, who also was
present at the opening (I was too late, but I have already met Marc Riboud
in Paris). The other exhibition was by another very good Leica
photographer, Sebastiao Salgado, who I also met in Paris a couple of times.
Salgado presents images from the struggle of Brazilian land workers, the
condemned of the earth. I bought the book, 'Terra', being published in
connection with a series of similar exhibitions in Latin America, United
States, Europe and Asia. The benefits goes directly to the Movement of the
landless (he can afford it...). It was nice to discover that living in
Rural France doesn't cut the links to the stumbling world. I also have the
LUG, of course, even if this forum not really is the stumbling world...

>If you have approached the right publishing house and if they see it will
sell,
>make money for them and the photographer, they will turn it into a book.
And it
>doesn't matter how good you think your work is, and it may well be the
greatest
>in your eyes, if it doesn't have a hope of making a profit, forget it.

Well, I know that...such is life in the Capitalistic Era. But one day the
system will collapse. We cannot continue this savage race eternally. We
will probably return to the old exchange economy, exchanging one thing for
another (even Leicas...). We will still publish books, I hope, and make
prints, exchanging them for other goods. I am accumulating thousands of
prints and by exchanging them, I hope to be able once again to make a long
trip around the world before I die. ;#) Or my sons will do it in my place.


Oddmund

PS: Have a nice 1st May everybody, if you know what I mean...