Re: Leicaphilia

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

>>Photography is for sure communication for the masses, but if it doesn't
>>serve the masses, or change anything, it is devoid of meaning.
>(edit)
>
>        This might be true, but who is to decide the qualifications for
>'change'?  In other words, it is fairly obvious that if a single image
>curbs the opinion of a group of people that a 'change' has occurred. But if
>an image sitting quietly on a wall makes someone stop, if only for a
>moment, and admire either an abstract concept or presentation of a familiar
>object in (perhaps) a surprising manner, then has not a 'change' occurred
>as well?

I don't do photography as a means of communicating with the masses, or 
changing them for that matter. Photography for me is an investigation 
into the world I know, my relationship with the world, and a way of 
seeing the people I've known, the places I've been; a way to try to 
capture how I've felt knowing them, being there, doing that ... etc. How 
successful the pictures are, from this perspective, is measured solely by 
my satisfaction with them. 

I also like to show pictures occasionally. If I can evoke an emotional 
response in the viewers, then I feel the pictures are successful. It is a 
means of expression, a form of history from a personal eye.

I'm not out to change the world with my photography. I am out to express 
my relationship with the world. Doing the latter may in fact do the 
former, even if only for me. 

There are other purposes to which photography can be used, it is a free 
and flexible craft in that respect.

>But I still prefer books to look at in the quiet of my home, allowing me 
>the joy
>of having not just one Cartier-Bresson on the wall, but a collection of 
>his work
>in a fine art produced book with prints generally in the size of 11X14.  This
>allows me the time to sit and study many of the photographer's images and 
>learn
>from them rather than the joy of a single print.

I generally don't hang pictures. The reason is that when I hang something 
on the wall, no matter how splendid or brilliant, it will eventually 
disappear from my view. I just stop seeing it. Whether I collect a book 
of pictures or just a random smattering of fine prints, I prefer to make 
the viewing of them something of an occasion ... I take them out, spend 
an hour or two looking at them, put them away again. I like doing that 
more than just hanging them on the wall.

Godfrey