Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/20
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I just read Page's memoir (Page After Page), and his two books of
pictures taken in SE Asia. A remarkable story - he was an English
kid who drove to Viet Nam (Laos, actually) via India, developing
a variety of drug habits along the way, and ended up being one
of the definitive image makers of the war. He had (maybe) more
work published by Life than any other freelancer working in that
war. The thing that really strikes me about his pictures is how
they combine very simple composition - perhaps because he was
shooting for the wire - with tremendous emotional intensity.
Back on subject, while he used lots of cameras, it's clear that
he has special affection for his M's - particularly the one
that saved his eye from a piece of shrapnel.
- -Alexey
Mark wrote:
>
> it's interesting to read all these interpretations of events 30 years
> ago. i talked to a photographer called tim page who apparently spent
> alot of time in vietnam and came close to death several times himself.
> he portrayed events there very pragmatically.
>
> they used the cameras they used because they were repairable in the
> field. nikon and canon were giving them equipment. the horror of
> losing friends touched them, but their role as observers distanced
> them from their subject, the war itself.
>
> when i met him the war had been over for at least 10 years. it still
> effected him very deeply, that much was kind of obvious from the way
> he spoke about it. it was as if the war was something he wanted to
> leave behind but could not, his psyche was entangled by it.
>
> he was extremely respectful of the people involved, on both sides.
> i take a cue from that, that while i may judge the people involved to
> be right or wrong, i respect the fact of their having been in a
> situation i cannot empathize with and am not able to predict my
> own reaction to.
>
> mark
..........................................................................
Alexey Merz | URL: http://www.webcom.com/alexey | email: alexey@webcom.com
| PGP public key: http://pgp5.ai.mit.edu/ | voice:503/494-6840
|"...during my five minutes of reflection, the world spent ten
| million dollars on armaments in order that one hundred sixty
| children could be murdered with utter impunity in the war of
| wars, the most silent, the most undeclared war, the war that
| goes by the name of peace." --Eduardo Galeano