Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I photographed the Israeli withdrawal from populated areas on the Gaza Strip in 1993, for Black Star, with my Leicas (to keep things OT), and it was obvious that numerous incidents of rock throwing, flag burning (Israeli and U.S.), processions of fatigue-cloaked gangs carrying Korans and chanting "Death to the Jews" were staged for the benefit and the delight of the assembled bovine photojournalists there. You'd hear the night before that you should be in such-and-such a place the next day at 10:00 and presto! just line up and click away. After we were done, everybody would go home, me with my Leicas (OT) to stay with a Palestinian family in Rafah, right by the border with Egypt. The Israelis, too, were all too eager to allow unknowns like me join them on jeep patrols of refugee camps and all that. So while I don't blame the press for stirring things up, I resent deeply the lazy herd mentality that meant most picture shooters travelled together to all get the same staged images that simply serve to support stereotypes. Few went off the well-trodden path in search of the stories of ordinary people - only extreme positions (so-called Islamic extremists and the Israeli occupation forces) were considered newsworthy and this too is what editors back home were pressing for. So it's all a vicious cycle. Emanuel Lowi Montreal