Re: [Leica] Re : Nachtwey's Capas, >> >Salgados, Evans, etc

["Gerry Walden" <gerrywalden@cwcom.net>]

I think that the reality is that it is more a time period thing than a
personality thing.   With the birth of extensive use of digital photography
by the news media, negatives are disappearing and images are stored for a
very short (relatively) period of time on computer disks, and therefore
there will be no photographic archives.   Newspapers here are storing for
less than six months!   The result will be that it is (or now 'was') only
the 20th century that will be retrievable in the future as recorded images.
So all of us who still shoot on film could be great because the journey
through time will destroy many of peoples negatives for whatever reason, and
those that are left will become more valuable regardless of artistic merit
or content.   So lets make each one of them count!

Gerry


- ----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Darnton <mdarnton@hotmail.com>
To: <leica-users-digest@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: 27 June 2000 23:14
Subject: [Leica] Re : Nachtwey's Capas, >> >Salgados, Evans, etc


> I was just going to let this whole thread pass on, but.....
> I was looking at photo books at the bookstore the other day. There are a
lot
> of anthologies and collections out right now--things on the 20th Century,
> news collections, and such. It was really depressing (and, what the heck,
> demeaning of humanity) to see most of them filled with Nachtwey, Capa,
> Salgado, Evans, etc. If you could see only those books you'd think the
whole
> of the human experience was about wars, starvation, death--a very tiny
part
> of the general human picture, and something which, for instance, has
> absolutely nothing to do with my life or that of anyone I know or have
ever
> known.
>
> If that's the only photos worth remembering in the long term history of
> mankind, then I say the quicker we pop a bomb and destroy the whole mess
of
> shit the better for everything on this planet. They may be memorable
> pictures, but they _sell_ in magazines because they appeal to the morbid,
> sensationalistic, voyeur instinct that makes the National Enquirer
> attractive and makes us slow down at car wrecks. The photographers may
> indeed be great photographers, and I admit they are, but the pictures are
> bought not because they're great, but because of their appeal to lower
> instincts of the average magazine reader, not to the very limited market
of
> appreciators of photography.
>
> --Michael Darnton
>
> ORIGINAL MESSAGES:::
> Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:56:28 +0200
> From: "Christian Louis" <christian.louis@skynet.be>
> Subject: [Leica] Re : Nachtwey's Capas, >> >Salgados, Evans, etc.
> Message-ID: <20000627115602.9FE79181B9@trinity.skynet.be>References:
> >I will now proceed to piss off many of my fellow LUGers and say thatin
> >> >terms of the long haul, in terms of the history of mankind, the only
> >> >photographers whose work will be worth remembering are the
> >>Nachtwey's Capas,
> >> >Salgados, Evans, etc. etc....and I certainly put some members of
> >>this group>> >in  that catagory. Photos of mountains, grandchildren,
> >>seascapes, etc., are>> >very nice, but ultimately meaningless.>> >>> >B.
> >>D.
> Difficult to say it better. thank you for the quality of your adviceC.
Louis
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