Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Suzy Q, again
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 19:29:25 -0400

Tina Manley jotted down the following:

> I think Salgado and Natchwey expect that their photographs will make a
> difference in the way the viewer feels or reacts toward the subjects
> portrayed and that in the long run their photographs will make a difference
> in the world.  Upon viewing their photographs you might feel compelled to
> contribute to a charity, work for hunger relief, consume less yourself.
> You can't really say that about photographs of a flower pot or a sunrise.

I wasn't thinking about it solely from the point of view of the
photographers, in terms of the photographer's intention.  I read Sontag's
comments on photography as comments on photography as a phenomenon, not as
comments upon photographer's intentions.  I agree with you 100% in your
assessment of their intention as photographers.  I'm also sure that, to some
extent, their vision is fulfilled by people who either buy their prints
(having part of the funds diverted to the subjects rather than the
photographers) or by people who are motivated to contribute monetarily or
otherwise through other means.

But the interesting thing about photography (or most social phenomena, for
that matter) is that you can look at it from a number of different
perspectives, and that quite often you find that from a more 'global'
perspective, the phenomena takes on characteristics which may not have been
the explicit intention of single, one person involved in it.

A classic, concrete example: take a group of people, with varying interests,
who go to the video store to rent a film.  More often than not, they end up
with something which no-one in particular within the group wanted to see and
which, if they'd been there on their own, no individual member would have
rented.  I read Sontag's comments as commentary upon the social phenomenon
of photography and the disparity between the intentions of individuals
involved in it and the greater social characteristics it has taken on.

M.

- -- 
Martin Howard                     |
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       |     It is essentially contestable.
email: howard.390@osu.edu         |
www: http://mvhoward.i.am/        +---------------------------------------