Re: [Leica] Re: salgado et al.

["Harold Gess" <Harold.Gess@btinternet.com>]

Dear Leica Users

I think this debate is an interesting one but I think that many of us have
lost sight of reality here.

The idea that only an african photographer can truthfully photograph african
subjects is, at best, naive. To start with, Africa is not one country filled
with people of the same culture, language or even race.

Africa is a continent of many cultures, races, religions and languages. What
they have in common is that they are all people. We live in a world filled
with people and our emotions are immediately accessible to people of other
cultural backgrounds.

When we talk of Africans who are we talking of? The San people of southern
Africa, the Nguni people, also of southern Africa but racially and
culturally very different, the diverse peoples of central Africa, the
Ethiopians, the Egyptians?

Are we saying that only members of each tribe should be allowed to
photograph members of that tribe? If so, is it still acceptable for a
photographer who comes from a rural area, but has lived his life in the
city, to return to the rural area to take photographs? What if he has
adopted a different religion whilst living in the city?

On another note, photography is an expensive occupation. To be able to
publish photographs requires equipment, contacts and access to the knowledge
of how to take photographs and to get these published. In Africa, successful
photographers are relatively wealthy. That 'wealth' in itself seperates
their world view from that of most of the poorer people of Africa.

Consider that in Zambia in central Africa the average monthly earnings of a
manual labourer are around 15 to 20 US dollars a month. A person who, in
that environment, can afford a camera and film is seen as a wealthy person.

The fact that he is seen as wealthy and has the power to take photographs
immediately sets him aside from his countrymen.

I was born in Africa. I spent 34 years of my life in Africa. I have worked
as a photographer in southern and central Africa. I am of european descent.
Am I an African? Yes and no. Where do I fit into the picture?

I believe that we need to see things from a realistic point of view. We are
all people trying to understand one another.

My pictures are my attempt to show the world through my eyes and with my
worldview. The pictures taken by somebody else of the same subject matter
are most likely to be different. Perhaps by seeing many different views of
the same thing we gain a greater understanding of it. By limiting it to one
view we reduce our understanding.

Let us remember, first and foremost, that we are all human beings and what
we have in common is far far greater than that which we dont.

Keep well

Harold