Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Eric Welch wrote: > > The ultimate hypocrisy of this issue is that at the same time they got rid > of the photo department at Life. Tom Bentkowsky is gone, many others who > made the magazine what it is. It's a sad day in photojournalism when Life > gets rid of the photo department and puts the "design" department in > charge. And states they are becoming more "entertainment oriented." I knew > Warner Brothers would ruin LIFE to help boost their movies. > A while back I spoke with senior editor at Sipa Press NY about direction of the agency and mentioned that many photoagencies seem to be headed in the celebrity area. I said it with rather a slurring tone. She chuckled and said "so are we. It IS what sells. It is what magazine editors want to buy." Sondonic (bitterly ironic) that today congress is considering "papparazzi" legislation at a time when the public has shown with their wallets that they want magazines with papparazzi pictures. No news is good news, I guess. So maybe we will get to a place where people don't want the pictures we can take (unless the Quebec virus spreads south) and we won't be allowed to take what the public really wants to see. So we'll have magazines where the only photos are for advertising, including the covers (as if it weren't mostly that way already). Remember McLuan? The medium is the really loud and shallow message. Content doesn't rule. Only form--wild and crazy, empty form. Hey, if we really know what they were doing we'd put most of the politicians, bankers and developers in jail. Why corrupt all the inmates aready in there? So shallowup, Eric. There is a designer just waiting for your desk if you don't. Remember, if you don't have content you don't need an editor or art director--just a designer to make it look pretty. I hope when Eisey does roll over in his grave that he doesn't squash his Leica. I'm sure it must rest squarely on his chest for all eternity. donal - -- Donal Philby San Diego http://www.donalphilby.com