Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]So, tell us what you really think :-) Is this the kind of snapshot you mean? http://www.fotolog.net/chmoss/?photo_id=219449 (beware -- Canon G3 picture -- purists need not look) - -- Clive http://clive.moss.net > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of > Dante Stella > Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 9:56 PM > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > Subject: Re: [Leica] Snapshots vs 'art' > > > Snapshots have a lot of potential to have meaning to the subject and > even to other viewers. They are unposed, unarranged, poorly lit, > ragged, wrinkled, and sometimes even tired, but they capture > the moment. > > What does not capture the moment or have any affective potential is > 99.99% of what calls itself "fine-art" photography or "professional > photography." I am always amazed at how people who photograph for a > living bill themselves. It seems that the more mediocre the > photography, the worse the hyperbole (hope I'm not appropriating any > real trademarks, but you get the idea): > > "Captured beauty" > > "Intimate moments" > > "Stopped time." > > Blah blah blah bullsh*t. It's like reading Robert Frost. > > What's worse, the worse the photographer, the more extravagant the > title. Has anyone ever noticed that the world's most famous > paintings > carry titles which are simple, elegant, and descriptive? Or has the > world of professional photography gotten so bad that it believes that > Platonic nominalism can bail it out? > > What's the excuse? People pay you (if you are good enough to sell > stuff), you write the equipment off your taxes, you charge the > materials to the customers, and if you have the cajones, you can make > them do any type of portrait YOU want. So what explains the complete > lack of creativity? Is it that you are not really an artist? > Are you > a technician? > > If you want overproduced portraits that are technically perfect and > emotionally absent, check into some Baroque painting sometime. > > If you want to see people as they are, as they look and as they feel, > look in some amateur's photo album. Sure, the pages are that sticky > kind, and there is that nasty cellophane that supposedly interferes > with viewing. Maybe some of the little square 126 prints are already > turning red. But it is much, much more genuine than the > Olan-Mills-style pablum coming out of most studios. Housepainters, > mostly. > > NO ARCHIVE > > ____________ > Dante Stella > http://www.dantestella.com > > -- > To unsubscribe, see > http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-> users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html