Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]- --=====================_6751236==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 08:57 25-05-01 +0200, you wrote: >It follows then that a photographer who takes pictures of perfect >strangers in public must be guilty of a form of photographic rape. Does it follow then that all us photographers who buy books by street photographers are guilty of buying pornography. There are those that would argue strongly (myself amongst them) that the purpose of photography is to record life. Philip Jones Griffiths put it thus: "...to me there is no point in pressing the shutter unless you are making some comment on the incongruities in life. That is what photography is all about. It is the only reason for doing it." There is another quote (name forgotten) that adds: "It is the purpose of photography to explain man to man, and man to himself". Without street photography we would have scant record of the last 150 years, and I find it difficult to imagine the absence of the socio-documentary input of those that so many of us consider 'greats'. It is the street photography that has shown us so much of what is good and what is bad in our contemporary lives. Guilty of rape I am not, but I may hold my hand up to a charge of voyeurism. Gerry - --=====================_6751236==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <html> <font size=3>At 08:57 25-05-01 +0200, you wrote:<br> <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>It follows then that a photographer who takes pictures of perfect<br> strangers in public must be guilty of a form of photographic rape.<br> </blockquote><br> Does it follow then that all us photographers who buy books by street photographers are guilty of buying pornography. <br><br> There are those that would argue strongly (myself amongst them) that the purpose of photography is to record life. Philip Jones Griffiths put it thus: "...to me there is no point in pressing the shutter unless you are making some comment on the incongruities in life. That is what photography is all about. It is the only reason for doing it." There is another quote (name forgotten) that adds: "It is the purpose of photography to explain man to man, and man to himself".<br><br> Without street photography we would have scant record of the last 150 years, and I find it difficult to imagine the absence of the socio-documentary input of those that so many of us consider 'greats'. It is the street photography that has shown us so much of what is good and what is bad in our contemporary lives.<br><br> Guilty of rape I am not, but I may hold my hand up to a charge of voyeurism.<br><br> Gerry<br><br> <br> </font></html> - --=====================_6751236==_.ALT--