Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/04/06

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Subject: [Leica] IMG: LUG assignment, March, George
From: imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser)
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:43:45 -0500
References: <C8FC2188-1472-42C1-AB8C-1D3DAD805557@mac.com> <C6AD3431-5CE7-46B3-992C-DC9A50041CD4@cox.net>

On Apr 6, 2009, at 4:45 PM, Steve Barbour wrote:
> I've thought a lot about this George...on the one hand the impact  
> is on people, and on a massive scale...how best to convey that ?

In my experience "taking on an assignment"
as a documentary photographer (or journalist)
always results in a shift of consciousness.

I had preconceived notions and expectations about this topic.
As I actually began to look around my community with the question,
"where's the evidence?" I saw things that I didn't see before.
I live here and drive around most days and didn't really notice the
rather phenomenal increase in empty retail and office space.

The people I'm talking to also seem to deny and / or not notice changes.

> ie the people and the scale...?

It's happening on a large scale; however, not all at once. Slowly,  
one person, one family at a time.
The headline stories tell us about bankers and millionaires and Ponzi  
schemes.
It's much harder to find the people who have been laid off, lost  
their insurance, etc.

> Almost any selected (even powerful) single image or more images,  
> can be found without trying too hard during the best of times, how  
> to demonstrate  the reality, the change, the scope... using images,  
> now that we are experiencing bad  times...?

Correct. Those are the questions. And only opening our eyes, meeting  
people and asking the right questions directly will we discover the  
answers - the real stories. That's the assignment.

> On the one hand the project seems surprisingly easy,  yet  
> ultimately surprisingly extremely difficult...

When I originally phrased the assignment I thought the same thing.  
Easy enough.
I've since come to the same conclusion. Extremely difficult.
And, for me, will be on-going (between attempting to stay afloat  
myself).

Regards,
George Lottermoser
george at imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com/blog
http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist




Replies: Reply from luisripoll at telefonica.net (Lluis Ripoll) ([Leica] IMG: LUG assignment, March, George)
Reply from kididdoc at cox.net (Steve Barbour) ([Leica] IMG: LUG assignment, March, George)
In reply to: Message from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] IMG: LUG assignment, March, George)
Message from kididdoc at cox.net (Steve Barbour) ([Leica] IMG: LUG assignment, March, George)