Re: Leicaphilia

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

ted grant wrote:

> And as far as buying prints of those I like, I prefer to collect books for my
> personal library, as without books to learn photography, it is like trying to
> sail the oceans without charts. It is a much greater value for the dollars than
> a single print hanging on the wall.

I, too, am a collector of books, not prints.  One of the beauties of
photography is that it is accessible to almost anyone.  Painting and
sculpture and other "art" is unique and only for a few.  

Photography is the communication for the masses (listening, Oddmund??),
a way to move people across languages and cultures.  And I'd rather have
my dogeared copy of the "Family of Man" or the "Creation" by Ernst Haas
that I can haul down to the local coffee house and get lost in than any
number of "original" prints hanging in my home.    

Even with my advertising work, it is nice to touch many people.  I shot
the composite photo on the cover of TurboTax/MacinTax software package
that had a print run of 7 million, plus all the catalogues and ads.  It
feels good to have my work seen by many, many people.  To me, prints and
transparencies are just the raw materials that take you to the printed
page where everyone has access. 

Think of the iconic images--like the street execution in Viet Nam by
Eddie Adams or the Kissing photos of Eisenstadt or Doisneau (sp?)--that
have become part of our cultural mythology, not because they are
precious work of art, but because they are both powerful and SEEN via
mass media.

There is one image by Dmitri Kessel I would like to own an original
print of, maybe one or two by Emil Schultheiss, but beyond that, give me
books (like Ted's).

Maybe it is just the journalist in me.  

Donal Philby
San Diego