Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> >From: Jim Brick [mailto:jim_brick@agilent.com] > > > > >What I don't like, actually detest, is the merging of a > >terribly troubled > >soul with fine art and/or a personal portfolio. > > > >Neither a personal portfolio nor fine art should be made, > >based upon the misery of another human being. Hmmmmmm....There goes the vast majority of pre-19th century painting, to say nothing of the sculpture..... To object to exploitation is one thing, to object to the presentation of suffering in art is another....What about the work of virtually all the outstanding documentary photographers of the past 50 years? What about Eugene Smith's Minimata (forgive my spelling)? And Eugene Richards' Cocaine and poverty work? What about Nachtwey and Salgado? What, for that matter, about Tina "Mother LUG" Manley's Central American work? Good documentary work often presents the suffering of those whose lives we so easily ignore, and it often makes it presentable by presenting it as art. B. D.