Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/01/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Quoth the Ted Grant : > > "Our responsibility during a documentary is let the subjects always > do their > thing. And it's our responsibility to find pictures within what they > are doing without direction nor posing." > > And it's as simple as that and be there in body but not influence. Texas Monthly magazine used to rate the legislators after every session (Molly Ivins always had fun with that). They had three categories: The Best, The Worst, and the Furniture. I've always aimed for "Furniture" when working. I'm not ever going to lose enough weight to get to "invisible" and nobody's ever going to be able to look through me to see what's on the other side unless my head's turned and you can look through my ears, but in some fashion appropriate to the moment, I CAN become a presence of no importance to the action taking place, and simply not be a focus of my subjects' attention. Depending on the dynamic, I'm either a poorly designed and overlarge hatrack, or simply another member of the group that nobody's really noticed before (and whose absence will not be remarked after). It's not at all uncommon that when I pull back from a group before leaving, the first person to become aware that I'm packing up or opening the door will ask when I'm going to come back to actually shoot pictures... or will be utterly astonished that I'm still there at all. If people have something else to focus on that's more effectively absorbing than the photographer, then as long as the photographer doesn't do anything to break that focus, s/he's just not going to be there. It's not invisibility in the optical sense... it's "blending in" kicked up several notches. Zen.... I am one with the chair. -- R. Clayton McKee http://www.rcmckee.com Photojournalist rcmckee@rcmckee.com P O Box 571900 voice/fax 713/783-3502 Houston, TX 77257-1900 cell phone # on request