RE: [Leica] Intimacy with long lenses....

["B. D. Colen" <BDColen@earthlink.net>]

When you use a long lens for that
> "intimate" view of another life or situation you are removing
> yourself from
> the close contact that makes the photograph sing. It is the very fact that
> you are close and can feel the breath or smell the smells that
> adds another
> dimension to a two dimensional image.

If you are referring to what you, as the photographer, and you alone, get
from the image when viewing it afterwards, you are absolutely correct. But
we too often forget that we smelled the smells, we felt the breath, we heard
the sounds, and the later viewers of our two-dimentional images did not.
While a wide angle can certainly convey an "in your face" quality from two
feet, or even from 12 inches, that a long lens cannot, even the photo taken
from 12 inches can only "convey" the smell, sounds, etc., to the
photographer, who was there to record them in his or her brain.

One of my complaints about many street photographs and photo journalism
projects is precisely the above: the photographer often presents us with
"dead" images incorrectly assuming that we can smell, hear, feel, etc., what
he did when he took the photo.


 And,
> there is nothing wrong with being in someone else's "space" as you call it
> if it is done with  respect, humility and genuine concern for the subject
> and their feelings.
>
If you are "in someone's space" you are in their space, and no amount of
rationalizing about "respect," "humility" and "genuine concern" can change
that. You may accomplish a greater good by invading their space, by ignoring
their "right to privacy," because by taking the photo you are bringing a
story to the world that will eventually help those whose story you are
telling. But don't delude yourself into thinking that because your ends are
pure, your means are as well..... :-) (And I've certainly done my own share
of invading privacy, both to take photos and to write newspaper stories...)