Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>First of all 99% of D's images are indeed >real life. And why is it bad to recreate a > scene. The line is quite thin here. It is as example wellknown that It is not a thin line. There is no such thing as "a little bit pregnant." There is no such thing as almost real picture. I don't know about your statistic of Dosineau's pictures, but the fact that he passed off posed pictures as real, and was only found out recently, tells me something about his character, and that makes me question everything he does. It is bad to recreate situations and pass them off as real. And besides, posing models around Paris kissing is not recreation. It's creation. Again, nothing wrong with that as long has one is honest about it. But such pictures are mere illustration, and thus lack the power of being truly captured slices of life. The sense of "yes, that's what was happening" lends pictures more power through their authenticity. Manipulate the situation, such as telling a person to move here or there, for better light, or pose, or composition, and it loses any validity to be called candid, real, slice of life photography. >HCB influenced his subjects to behave in > a way that suited his imaging purposes. He did it subtle, but he did >it anyway. If you look carefully at some > of his pictures, you have to admit that they are on the brink of being >posed. That is totally false. There is no call for making such an accusation. He has denied such action, and it calls into question his whole life's work. Name one single picture that you say is posed, besides the portraits which are often, but not always, legitimately posed. I know from experience that some people are jealous of others who get great candid pictures, and accuse them of posing them because they themselves have never been able to get such pictures. It happens all the time. Not that you are jealous, but such disinformation about photographers has harmed their work's reputation. Such as Rosenthal's picture of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. Totally unposed, but the rumor persists to this day. Or Capa's Spanish civil war soldier's death. Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch Footprints on the sands of time.