Re: [Leica] I missed it.

["Dan Post" <dwpost@email.msn.com>]

MArk-
I was mentioning to Bob today, over a tray of fixer, very much the same
sentiment. It is almost like a word/picture association test- look at this
picture, and what word comes to mind. "Menace" or "evil" immediately springs
up in my mind. A caption explaining what action is taking place would
certainly clarify the context, but one look alone would deliver the message
that "this ain't one of the good guys" and you're not in Kansas anymore!
There are portraits that portray the visage of the subject, but once in a
while, the photographer is there at the right time to see the black soul of
evil peering out of long dead eyes.
Someone mentioned W.Eugene Smith's photoessay on the tragedy of Minimata;
the shot of the mother holding her daughter in the bath is also one of those
moments when the pathos and care of the mother is very evident. Once, a
caption would certainly again place one into the scene and set the stage,
but the mother's expression of love and sadness is a very powerful image.
Certainly evil and tragedy do not have to be the sole subject of such moving
shots. The famous shot of the little boy and girl walking through the arbor
of shrubs is one of my favorites, and evokes many different feelings, all
happy and carefree.
Dan
- -----Original Message-----
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Date: Thursday, April 01, 1999 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] I missed it.


>The Goebbels & Krupps shots are both major influences for me.
>I would better say they haunt me.
>This is not the issue being discussed but why is it that the word
>"portrait" sticks and just doesnt' do it for me on these guys? These
>shots are more then personality studies they are multileveled revelations.
>And both these shots have the satanic element in them; looking the devil
>in the eye.
>Mark "The Exorcist" Rabiner