[Leica] Off with their Pedestals!

[Jeff Moore <jbm@oven.com>]

2000-01-03-04:37:42 B. D. Colen:
> (Would you believe, Bernard, that there are some of us who believe that
> Ansel Adams was an incredible photo technician, but a pretty mediocre
> artist?)

You and me both, O my brother!  I'm grateful to him for having helped
take some of the guesswork out of the process of going from image to
print, and to be fair, I've seen a few portraits and color industrial
landscapes (!) of his which were at least intriguing to look at, but
for the most part his work just doesn't engage me.

To take a potshot at another sacred cow:  I've  generally tended to
find Ralph Gibson's work somehow, well, obvious and unnecessary.  I'm
sure that's just another personal failing of mine.  ;-)

Okay, here's where I expose a rich and unbecoming vein of hubris: I've 
always viewed the best of Cartier-Bresson's work, with its
seemingly impossible combinations of lovely formal compositions with
split-second timing, as an unattainable ideal I can keep striving
for;  I view Salgado's work as not too far off what I could do if I
had the gumption to actually get in the thick of where pictures like
that can be made, which I apparently don't.  It's not just about
working the camera...