Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/18

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Political Correctness
From: "Julian Thomas" <mimesis@btinternet.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 14:51:05 +0100
References: <4.2.2.20000718070910.00b7d520@infoave.net>

Hi Tina,

As John Brownlow can probably testify, I'm so often ham-strung by
inappropriate PC that I won't take a photo of a pretty girl on the street -
by the time I'm finished arguing with myself the shot has gone!
I think as regards your photos and PC - the question to ask is who is being
exploited. In you r case I don't see any exploitation. You are passionate
about your subjects and their is a real tenderness in your photographs. As
you've said before, you don't 'smash and grab' but you live with the
families, revisit them, help the community. If your work is not PC then
neither is much of the work of Mary Ellen Mark.
This idea of involving people in your photos is hopelessly inappropriate
and, if followed, negates all PJ. Do gallery owners say the same of Salgado?

I'd argue the case strongly!

Julian

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Tina Manley" <images@InfoAve.Net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 12:18 PM
Subject: [Leica] Political Correctness


> Dear LUGnuts -
>
> The Project Workshop in Santa Fe with Sam Abell was very good.  Sam is a
> wonderful teacher; however, I learned something that was both enlightening
> and disturbing.
>
> My project is "Las Familias" - an exhibit (possibly book) of my
photographs
> of Honduran families.  I learned that many galleries will not accept my
> project because it is politically incorrect - I am a photographer from the
> first world photographing people in the third world.  To make the project
> more acceptable it was suggested that I involve the families in the
project
> by (a) giving them a camera and letting them photograph their own lives
(b)
> getting them to write comments about the photographs.  (a) wouldn't work
> because the people I visit don't have time to take photographs - they
spend
> all of their waking hours trying to feed their families (b) might work
with
> a tape recorder but many of the people I photograph don't read or write -
> and several of the families in the project were killed by Hurricane
Mitch -
> do I exclude those photographs?
>
> What do you think about political correctness?  Gallery owners and
> publishers who reviewed our work seemed to think it is an important issue,
> but it honestly never occurred to me.
>
> Leically,
>
> Tina
>
>
> Tina Manley, ASMP
> http://www.tinamanley.com
>
>

In reply to: Message from Tina Manley <images@InfoAve.Net> ([Leica] Political Correctness)