Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
At 01:47 PM 4/2/99 +0800, you wrote:
>Personally I think that anyone who relies on TV and photographs
>as the primary source of information upon which they base important
>decisions is at least naive and most probably stupid, since they can
>hardly fail to be aware of the superficial nature of such 'coverage'.
>Perhaps such people really exist...
Though what you say here is true, I think it's too simplistic. I know of
photographs that played a role in changing the way people feel about Viet
Nam. Nick UT's photo of Kim Phuc burned by napalm or Eddie Adams' photo of
the execution of the Viet Cong soldier. Just a few examples. W. Eugene
Smith's work.
All of these appeared in LIFE. And even though life gives space to a few
photos - they have to, they can't completely throw the baby out with the
bathwater, the way they treat photos in the rest of the magazine - almost
every one in some issues have design elements like page numbers over them,
even though it's not necessary, and the horrible layouts. Screaming ads
that distract. Ugly, ugly layouts. Poor cropping. It's all there.
And National Geographic's Adventure magazine? Sheesh, it looks like a
design class run amok. Many pictures way too small to see the content, and
type over pictures all over the place. Horrible. As hard to read as Wired
magazine. And just as "trendy."
Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
The strength and power of despotism
consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
-- Thomas Paine