Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Try photographing anything in India where the police think they might have a reason to shout at you or harass you in any way. Bridges, post offices, railway stations, even a cinema hoarding once! All stuiff that is fully visible from the street. And you needn't even be photographing the thing itself, just photographing in the neighbourhood. A favourite trick is to let you shoot a roll or so and then come up and demand the film off you. Usually a bit of smiling, waggling the hands and saying you're just a tourist geek will solve the problem, but the hostility to photography is extraordinary. I think a lot of cops are just bored and enjoy giving people a hard time, that's definitely in their job description, right? In contrast to the average Indian citizen who is usually delighted to be photographed - which makes India just about the nicest place to take pictures I know. BTW, if the use of the term gelatin silver is so pretentious, how about other terms dear to the photographer's heart, such as TTL, aperture ring, shutter release, push one stop, E6 etc. Every trade has its terminology, thus making for "clarity" (ohmygod!)... That's all there is to it. No pretention, retention (anal or otherwise), presumption or any other nastiness, just a clear description of what's on the wall or on the top plate of your favourite black box. Robert Appleby and Sue Darlow Via Bellentani 36 41100 Modena Italy Tel/fax [39] 059 303436