[Leica] Jim Marshall presentation

["Jim Laurel" <JimLaurel@earthlink.net>]

Fellow LUGgers,
Last night, I attended the Jim Marshall / Jim Britt presentation here in
Seattle hosted by Leica.  Unfortunately, I arrived late and missed Mr.
Britt's work, but did catch Mr. Marshall's presentation - a few inspired
photos, but far too many posed "...and here's a shot of Janis...and here's
Jimmy squirting lighter fluid on his guitar..."  But, again, he did show
some really wonderful stuff as well.

After the recent thread here on the LUG about photographing in public
places, I posed the question to Mr. Marshall: "You've been shooting on the
street for over 40 years.  How have peoples' attitudes toward photographers
changed over the years?"

From his reaction, it was clear that this question touched a nerve.  Jim's
first response was that there is alot of hostility, edginess, and anger on
the street today.  Indeed, he finds that peoples' paranoia has reached a
fever pitch.  He feels that the change has been caused by:

- - A lack of integrity on the part of photographers who have exploited people
through photography
- - Paranoia that the photos will be used for nefarious purposes (child porn,
scoping out areas for crimes, etc)
- - He mentioned the "paparazzi" several times as a real blight on the
profession

I'm sure he had even more reasons, but the whole topic seemed so frustrating
to him that, after a few minutes, he turned to the Leica rep and said
something like "let's go have a drink!"

Incidentally, Marshall waxed poetic about the new Summicron 28 ASPH.  He
also raved about his Leicavits.  Apparently, he had Leica do one specially
for him with a titanium finish to match his ti M6!

- --Jim Laurel