Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/11

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: [Leica} Doisneau, posed unposed
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 17:07:37 -0600

>Either a shot "works", has "integrity" or it doesn't. this is not based
>on how much your subjects were supposedly not aware of you and how much
>you supposedly didn't influence them.

That is true for commercial and stock photographers. If a photographer at
most good newspapers were to say "Hey buddy" to get them to turn their
faces to the camera, they would be fired.

The difference between professionals and amateurs is professional
obligations to their employers and, in the case of journalists, to their
readers. I can tell you that even when a subject is aware of the camera,
and not all my pictures is that the case, that if the photographer wait's
out the initial few moments, then the subject gets tired of paying
attention to the photographer and goes back to what they are doing. It's
often important to communicate the photographer's wishes along those lines
to do such. 

Any photographer who passes off pictures where they deliberately
manipulated the subject/scene and then goes on to tell people they are
candid pictures is a liar at worst, or uniformed and unprofessional at
best. The reader is well aware that the subject knows the photographer is
there in many cases. But it's a question of what is the photographer
looking for. A fiction to fit a preconceived notion (perfectly legitimate
in many contexts such as advertising and illustrative work, but never in
journalism) or are we telling people's stories. Showing the world what is
happening.

The practice of thinking we have to have a red shirt to jazz up a scene
(like National Geographic back in the 50s), or the baby's shoe in the
accident scene to make it more heart wrenching, is the same kind of hack
who rewrites people's quotes to make them more interesting for the reader.
It's a lie no matter which way you slice it. They do it because they aren't
capable of functioning without shortcuts.

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

Capt'n! The spellchecker kinna take this abuse