[Leica] FOMing at the mouth

[Dante Stella <dante@umich.edu>]

Dave is right.  Why not something new that thinks outside of the FOM box (probably conceived by some clever editor anyway).  It's a romantic concept to ruminate about bringing back some past glory, but one that's been done (oh, wait, that's the Null-Series).  Why not enjoy taking some good pictures and selecting from them and having a nice site that showcases the various talents of group members?

Even the use of the FOM name gives everyone an inferiority complex.  Why go nuts living in the shadow of HCB and others?  Life is too short to worry about taking a picture because "it won't live up to x, y or z."  The only significant pictures you can take are of things to which you are a witness.  HCB (or any professional) was paid for what he did, and that's how he got to the places where he did his work.  In the same way everyone wonders why they can never get travel Kodachromes like National Geographic does.  Easy answer: if you had six weeks (or months) to get that volume of pictures, there would be little excuse for you to come away with nothing good enough to grace at least a text-dominated NG page.

Besides, from some of the pictures I've seen of him at work, HCB used Canon IVSB bodies anyway.

:  )



On Saturday, October 14, 2000, at 04:09 PM, Dave Fisher wrote:

> Dear Alistair, 
>  
> Your website looks great and I'm enthralled by the ambition of your project. 
> To that end I'm thinking hard about contributing, but I have some 
> reservations starting with the name of the project. Perhaps it's already 
> been hashed out earlier by others, but I'd like to add my two cents 
> regardless. As much as I like the "idea" of the project, and as much as I 
> know there will be some fantastic "content" to the project, I still can't 
> help but feel the project will suffer from the stigma of it's title, and 
> some people (artists and critics) will want to keep an arms length from it. 
> It was bad enough that somebody decided the world needed another Woodstock, 
> but it takes a lot of chutzpah for somebody unconnected to the original 
> event to pick up the flame for the "sequel." Imagine these same hypothetical 
> Woodstock 2 promoters issuing a dogmatic "songs must be written and recorded 
> and performed on Roland Synthisizers" manifesto, and you must anticipate the 
> sharpening of knives and gnashing of teeth by photographers 
> (up-to-and-including some Leicaphiles), curators, viewers, critics, etc. who 
> will claim it to be an unimaginative conceit by an exclusive club. I 
> recommend that you take the spirit and inspiration of the orignal FOM and 
> create something entirely fresh and original, even if it's in name only, and 
> especially if the project is limited to Leica cameras. 
>  
> Just my $0.02... 
> Dave Fisher 
> ------------------------------------------------------ 
> http://home.golden.net/~tekapo 
>  
>  
> > > 1. The Name will remain The Family of Man 2 project: LUG 
> > > 
> > > 2. At this stage I want to restrict it to leicas. This is the Leica 
> Users 
> > > Group, and it is envisaged as a "put your Leica where your mouth is" 
> kind 
> > > of project, to get us off our bums and snapping. I also suspect that the 
> > > project would be "infiltrated" and overrun if it were not restricted in 
> > > this way, much as I love shooting with my Rollei's etc. 
> > > 
> > > 3. I want images that people have gone and and deliberately taken for 
> this 
> > > project. 
> > > 
> > > 4. I accept that the FOM circa 1955 will have the edge on us in 
> "talent", 
> > > but that was a retrospective study, and I'm looking for "fresh, 
> innovative 
> > > new millenium" feel, and a look at our society and world. They went back 
> > > and looked at 2 X 1000000 images, and I'm not intending that many ;-) 
> > > 
> > > 5. They had 270 photographers, and I would like to see a similar number 
> or 
> > > more participating in this project: that's only 30% of the LUG after all 
> > > 
> > > 6. I want widespread and wideranging images 
> > > 
> > > 7. I do not want to limit submissions (this is not really a "contest") 
> for 
> > > reasons outlined by Ted 
> > > 
> > > 8. Not every one is guaranteed a "result". I want this to be the 
> "best-of" 
> > > the LUG over a 5 year project. All who participate will be included in 
> the 
> > > credits, but it is up to you to take image "worthy" of the exhibition 
> > > 
> > > 9. Voting will be by those who register for the project 
> > > 
> > > 10. I intend that images will be titled, but not attributed to an author 
> > > until the voting is done. I would think this is the fairest way to 
> ensure 
> > > we end up choosing the best images, and from the wides sources. 
> > > 
> > > Although I want to keep some reins on this "dream", I am open to 
> > > critisism, 
> > > and will always happily negotiate the above points. All the 
> > > details will be 
> > > up on a web site along with "entry" conditions hopefully in the next 2 
> > > weeks, so lets get snapping 
> > > 
> > > Cheers 
> > > 
> > > Alastair Firkin 
> > > 
> > > http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html 
>  
>