Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Laughing Photos
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 19:07:15 -0500

At 10:07 PM 6/15/98 +0200, you wrote:

>The most famous photographs have humor.  But nobody remembers the
>photographer.  Strange.  How many of you know who took the picture of

Actually, I think that's too great a generalization. But the spirit is
right, I think. Many, many funny photos are among the best known.

The reason you find not that many funny photos is that funny photos are
much harder to make than serious photos - at the highest level. Eliott
Erwitt is the master. Duane Michals is good too, but his are contrived.
I've taken a few funny photos. My squirrel picture on me web site is one.
And the valentine photo from this past spring. But great? Nope. Just fun.

In the Pictures of the Year contest (run by the National Press
Photographers, University of Missouri and Canon) we had a humor category
one year. It fell of its own dead weight. Not enough funny photos to
justify the category. Most of the pictures that were sent in were trite,
stupid or just plain unfunny. Totally different than truly funny.
- --

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

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