Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/26

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: RE: [Leica] Re:Nachtwey
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 16:02:51 -0400

Well, then let's just get rid of all journalists, photo and
otherwise...let's get rid of all photographers who take photos of anything
other than their naked grandchildren....If you don't think photos like
Nachtwey's ultimately CAN make a difference, you weren't alive during the
Vietnam war and have never seen the photo of the naked napalmed little girl,
or Eddie Adams shot of the Saigon street execution.....without getting into
the right or wrong of the the photos, they made an enormous difference.....

I will now proceed to piss off many of my fellow LUGers and say that in
terms of the long haul, in terms of the history of mankind, the only
photographers whose work will be worth remembering are the Nachtwey's Capas,
Salgados, Evans, etc. etc....and I certainly put some members of this group
in  that catagory. Photos of mountains, grandchildren, seascapes, etc., are
very nice, but ultimately meaningless.

B. D.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of
> ARTHURWG@aol.com
> Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 3:50 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re:Nachtwey
>
>
> Selling  one's soul to the devil... was a refrence to what some
> people will
> do to achieve success.  By most accounts, Nachtwey is the most successful
> living photojournalist.  Is it fair to say that he got there  on
> the backs of
> the dead, the dying, those who endured the most horrible
> suffering?  It sort
> of reminds me of the Rolling Stones' "Sympath for the devil." And do you
> really think that one photo, or a thousand, can alter the course
> of history
> or save even one life?  It's a nice idea, but I don't think it
> works. Arthur
>