RE: [Leica] Re: Lenswork Magazine

["bdcolen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I don't think we're really disagreeing here about anything substantive.
But if you can find it, take a look at "The Photos of The Century - 100
Historic Moments," by Marie-Monique Robin, published by Evergreen.
Moment 19 is Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother." The book shows five
alternate shots, tells how the photo came to be taken, includes comments
from one of the mother's now adult children. And in the section Vicki
Goldberg refers to the FSA photo project as "a form of government
propaganda."

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Dan C
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 7:28 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: Lenswork Magazine


But if you set out to document the lives of failing farmers, aren't you
already loading the dice?   You're not going to illustrate your essay
with
photos of wealthy farmers, you're going to search out those poor farmers
to photograph.  A print journalist doing a story on homeless people will
not
spend much time on Rodeo Drive.  But why not?   Because he/she has
already
chosen a certain slant or direction for the story.   If you hired actors
to
play the role of a failing farmer as a subject for your photographs,
that would be one thing.  But as long as the failing farmers are out
there, and either I make my own decision to seek them out, or a
government beraurocrat hires me to do the same, I don't really see how
the end result is not Documentary Photography, as long as I do my job
properly.  And being a good photographer, and not just a snap shooter,
I'm going to try and get the best possible photograph, hence my contact
sheets may show up all sorts of lesser stuff (though I have not see
Dorothy Lange's contacts; is there an on-line source?).

dan c.

 At 06:56 PM 09-11-02 -0500, bdcolen wrote:
>No flame throwers; no flames. :-)
>
>The FSA photo projected was created specifically to highlight poverty 
>and the plight of the poor in rural areas to build support for New Deal

>legislation and programs. Nothing wrong with that, but it does mean 
>that the folks working for the program were, at best, doing PR 
>photography. They were sent out to bring back photos making people and 
>places look as poor and downtrodden as possible. That doesn't mean that

>people weren't poor and downtrodden, but if you look at some of the 
>examples of Lange's out-takes, you can see what she was going for.
>
>As for Smith...he invented the modern photo essay, he was a creative 
>genius whose work I greatly admire - but he set up photos in a way that

>would not be tolerated today by any main stream media outlet.
>
>So we come back to the question of what is or isn't documentary 
>photography.....I believe that if one sets out to "document" a 
>situation, be it the lives of failing farmers in the dust bowl and 
>"okies" on the road, or the daily life of a middle class family, one is

>obligated to "document" - preserve - things as one finds them, and not 
>set up photos to tell the story one had in mind.
>
>But again, that doesn't mean the Lange didn't do great work. She did. 
>Do great work.
[snip]
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