Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 5/26/01 6:20 AM, Malcolm McCullough at MM4@mm-croy.mottmac.com wrote: >> I just find it hard to imagine that >> landscape, still life, portraiture and consensual documentary are going to >> be more than 50% of anyone's greatest hits. > > Wow. > You either have a limited imagination, an amazing knowledge of the members > of the human race or wrote that without thinking (which I confess to being > guilty of on more than one occasion). the first, obviously > > Non-consensual documentary makes up a small proportion of the images (still > or moving) that have affected me strongly in one way or another (not wishing > to use the words 'greatest hits'). Maybe I'm speaking as a rank outsider; I > hope not. But that just shows you haven't thought about what I said. You've also changed the terms of the argument to include moving images. The vast majority of the great reportage, documentary or otherwise, of the 20th century was shot without 'consent'. To me this single body of work far outweighs in cultural significance - what it tells us about the human race - the rest of the photographic corpus, however wonderful it might be. Yes maybe my imagination is limited. > > I make documentary films, and unless deliberately trying to do someone harm > (very rare), all are entirely consensual. Just because that is how I wish to > be. Yeah all mine (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Brownlow,+John) were consensual too except the investigations. Has nothing whatever do with still photography though. - -- John Brownlow http://www.pinkheadedbug.com