Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/11/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]HI Tina, I didn't find the photos very manipulative, or contrived, apart from the fact that he was emphasizing the obvious: photographer actually have physical bodies, they have a perspective, and some of them even pray. I imagine the same is true of my green grocer and my prime minister. The photographers did not co-ordinate the pre-riot scene. The Palestinian youths were setting up a road block. If you want to set up a road block, it makes sense to do it before the riot police. And as for photos of flag burning and posing with rocks, I suppose most people know that the camera is right there at the point of view in the middle of which all lines of perspective converge to a vanishing point. I thought this little boy's talk was quite insulting, especially when he thought he was making some clever point by showing photographers praying. The fact that some people who pray are rioters, some are greengrocers, some are photographers, some are rabbis, has nothing to do with the issue. The documentary maker was implying this was a religious conflict and that religious, human photographers would bias the perspectives. It's not a religious conflict. It's about occupation or territorial claim, depending on which side is looked from. A photographer chooses an angle that includes a dramatic sky, and this documentary maker thinks he is doing cultural anthropology by pointing that out. I'm sure none of us here on LUG choose the least interesting point of view before we press the shutter button. I wonder what Tim Hetherington would have to say about this documentary. All the best, Peter