Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi, He's saying that we should be sensitive when we photograph people. That's all. - --- Bob mailto:bob@web-options.com Friday, July 13, 2001, 6:08:06 PM, you wrote: > on 7/13/01 8:42 AM, Leica Users digest at > owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us thoughtfully wrote: >> "There is something appalling about photographing people. It is certainly >> some form of violation. So if sensitivity is lacking, there can be >> something barbaric about it." > I suppose the same can be said about inept writers. > Creating any portrait is as much about the photographer as the subject. > After all, you have to SEE. Better, you have to SEE and have a form of > communication with the subject, perhaps that communication is a certain > empathy, perhaps from a spoken dialog, perhaps subliminal. > Is observing humankind a violation? > I don't think so. I think it's a reaching out, a search to understand, to > reveal. > Sure, some revelations can be unkind and even cruel. And some can be kind > and be total lies. > But the act of looking, of seeking to bond in that moment, and to express > the human condition is what art is all about. > So I think Henri Cartier-Bresson was diminishing photography from other > portrait art forms. Of course I didn't read the whole quote. > Adam Bridge > Split Second Films