Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/07

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Subject: Re: Model Releases
From: Harrison McClary <hmphoto@delphi.com>
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 14:44:03 -0500

Donal Philby wrote:
>He was here in town for ASMP meeting and the sad part was that those of
>us in the audience kept wondering what he was thinking, because so few
>of the pictures showed the reality of life here.  They were simply a New
>Yorker's conception of how weird life is here on the coast.  He brought
>his own ideas and forced reality to fit.  Ho-Hum.

Donal,

I hate to say it, but all too often this is true.  People arrive in an area
and allow their preconcieved notions of a place color their perceptions of
reality there.  

I see it here in Nashville a lot.  Everybody coming to town thinks we all
wear cowboy hats, drive trucks, chew tobacco, and are divorced.  All because
of Country Music.  Well no locals wear cowboy hats (unless of course they
moved here from somewhere else.)  I grew up on a farm raising cattle and I
have never even owned a cowboy hat.  Most are NOT diviorced, and only a few
of us drive trucks.

Furthermore because of the way we talk people assume we are less intelligent
than others.  Having spent a large part of my life working news, I have
played this to my advantage adapting a deep south Georgia accent and playing
dumb just so that when the S*** hits the fan and things happen fast I can
get where I want to be becasue the security, cops, or whatever over look me
because I am a stupid southerner.

Photographers need, no must, stay open minded and try to show objectively
what their subjects are about.  The media has already lost its credibility
because of biased news coverage, so we as the visual documentarians of the
times and places we find ourselvs MUST show things as they are, not how we
want them to be.

Harrison McClary
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto

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