Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/29

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Subject: Re: [Leica] a life of photographing women
From: John Brownlow <john@pinkheadedbug.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 15:31:37 -0400

on 29/8/00 2:58 pm, Mark Rabiner at mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com wrote:

>> <Snip> It must be a relief to
>> have someone like Kyle around who doesn't react with horror and hushed
>> voices to what is a non-life-threatening form of self injury.
>> 
>> i found the 'I love you' picture both disturbing and moving and it said a
>> lot about the whole subject.
>> --
>> Johnny Deadman
>> 
> I don't think the scarring issue means you are dealing with someone deeply
> disturbed.
> I'm sure MANY of the people  I know I deal with are disturbed. it is just much
> less obvious.
> It is hurtful for US to witness these scars. It is hurtful to listen to a
> stuttering person try to talk.
> 
> Over the decades I could have made the "ethical" decision to not shoot women
> who
> appear to be dieting heavily but so far it appears I've contributed to no
> deaths. Had it gone the other way who knows how I'd be feeling about it now.
> ...anorexia being the prevalent female mental disorder which relates to
> photographers.
> 
> I had an elegant 28 year old women come out of the dressing room (who was a
> nurse) wearing a bathing suit, two piece. We were discussing shooting her
> modelling portfolio and if she needed to get in shape much more first.
> So it was a shock when I saw she had cigarette burn marks all over her body
> from
> parental abuse.
> I was the first person she ever allowed to see those burns…
> which I guess meant having never gone to the beach or having a much of a love
> life.
> Anyway i didn't end up shooting this womens model portfolio but I was
> strangely
> flattered that she would take the first step of allowing someone to see her
> scars and that this person would be me.
> She burst into tears briefly and then went back to being a nurse at the
> hospital
> where she worked in this neighborhood.
> A necessary catharsis it seemed for her to get on with her life.
> I ran into her sometimes and she smiled at me nicely a kind of trust was there
> I guess.
> 
> I think we interact with people with all kinds of problems all the time. We
> don't know WHO will show up at our doorstep for a picture and what their
> life's
> baggage has amounted to.
> We just have to do the best we can without PHD's and try to treat these people
> like normal humans so that someday they can become normal humans.
> Not isolate them or treat them like eggs.
> Markwr

We were talking a while back about the most wrong anyone had ever been on
the LUG. Speaking personally, I think that's the most RIGHT anyone's ever
been in the time I've been here.

- -- 
Johnny Deadman

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com