Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/08

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Today's Great Photographers {was Photo whores}
From: "Harrison McClary" <hmcclary@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 21:49:06 -0700

AJSymi@aol.com wrote:

> (or editors'/readers' lack of interest in foreign matters)

Here you hit the nail on the head.  "Editors/readers lack of interest in foreign 
matters".  Unfortunately most people in America now want to ignore the rest of 
the world and pretend "their" problems will in no way affect us. Things 
happening in Asia and the failing economies are too distant to worry with.  
Individuals civil liberties and rights being trampled under the treads of a tank in 
China are no worry to us, hell our president even goes there and acts all 
chummy with those responsible for massacring those defenceless students. 
Civil unrest to the extreme in Bosnia and "ethnic purgings" are no worry to us 
since it can't happen here; even though in our cities kids are running around 
with automatic weapons shooting other kids because they wear the wrong 
colour shoes. Or one kid decides he doesn't like the other kids in his school so 
he takes a rifle into school and blows away several of his friends.  Happened, 
what 5, 6 times in the last month in different states all in small towns?

No, we in America are to blind to see that the problems in other parts of the 
world are the same we have here and we don't care what "they" are going 
through as it could never happen here.  Right man will never walk on the moon 
either.

Photography is a powerful tool to effect change, but it has to be seen to have 
power.  There are few outlets willing to display this kind of work. How many of 
you even know of Jim Nacwechey's work?  Christopher Morris? Peter/David 
Turnley? and many others out there working the killing fields of the late 20th 
century. 

(I KNOW I misspelled Jim Nacwechey's name---I never get it right and don't 
have any of my books with his work in front of me at present.)


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