Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/27

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Subject: [Leica] standalone photos
From: Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 23:19:29 +0200

>>>>>
On 27 Oct 2000, Alan Hull wrote, at least in part:

> To say that a black and white still foto is complete and needs no
> support is a remarkable example of wishful thinking. We live in a
> three dimensional world of colour and movement and smell etc.
> (Martin Howard).  The viewer of a foto supplies the majority of
> the missing info.

I'll leave the decision as to whose view is more correct to the 
readers, Alan. 

Bear in mind, though, that every still photo doesn't succeed just 
as not every film clip succeeds! Would a film clip of the same 
episode necessarily have given enough detail for your wife and 
her friend to have better understood the venue etc.? How 
inportant is it for the viewer, in the case of this photo, to know 
the venue and exact situation?

Will you be happier if I say that a still photo *can* be complete 
unto itself, and that a film clip *may* have extra detail that 
promotes understanding and appreciation? We're at loggerheads 
if you won't grant that.

- - --
Roger, List-Owner
The LEG (Leica Enthusiasts Mailing List)
<<<<<<

I remember reading where Cornell Capa said they took his brother's picture
of the spanish civil war shooting to Japan, thinking it was a picture with
absolutely universal significance and they just didn't get it.
How would Winogrand's picture of the bear biting his cage go down in Saudi
Arabia, or a Mapplethorpe fistf..k? (Note the tactful excision of offending
u and offending c).
I think everything about a still picture is context and culture dependent.
So there.
Please, Roger, let's be at loggerheads! No? Oh alright then....
Rob.