Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/02/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Re rip-offs, Sh*t, Shakespeare ripped off his predecessors, nothing new here! We all stand on the shoulders of our predecessors. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dante Stella" <dstella1@ameritech.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 7:48 PM Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Salgado to speak in Seattle Feb 16 > Well, since it's beat-up-on-Allan-Wafkowski-nite, I won't. I don't want to > be crotchety at my young age, but... > > I don't care about Salgado's politics. He shoots editorial pictures for > Rolling Stone for goodness sake. And NG. The first one's viewpoint is > fairly clear. If the second one has a viewpoint, no one has read the > articles to find out what it is. > > As a preliminary issue, I find it hilarious that people went nuts about Leni > Reifenshtal because her message was inseparable from her photography, but > when there is some question about what Salgado is encoding in his pictures, > his work is politically neutral and completely meritorious. People > complained that Leni ripped off other photographers. Ok. Well, so did > Salgado. Either it is with both Salgado and her, or with neither. But > people have built up to the same kind of idolatry for Salgado that makes > them worship 50 year old cameras. But wait -- Leica uses his work to sell > 50-year old cameras. That ties it all together. I really don't care for > Leni or Sebastiao. > > But that's neither here nor there. The reason why I don't care for Salgado > is his recent work, especially as I saw it in Madrid. > > First, the compositional element of Exodus suggested the point of view of a > video camera and not a person. None of the direct contact or human interest > of Gene Smith, rather a Zaccheus-from-the-tree viewpoint. There were a > couple of strong pictures: a window light portrait in Bosnia, some men > pulling a boat in Vietnam (or was it the Philippines), but even those did > not engage the subject. But in the majority, there are no events - it seems > that every shot is a frame from a movie. That does not convey the human > condition, except that a line of humans are as ants on a hill or part of a > landscape. In fact, I thought that for this reason, a fair number of the > shots were de-humanizing. > > Second, not everyone likes TMZ shot at f/1.0. It is hard on the eyes, the > tonality is lacking (well, you get at least 6 shades of gray) and when > exhibited on a grand scale, it looks like a dot-matrix printer did it. > > Finally, Children of the Exodus was very contrived. Child after child in > front of the same background, same dodge-by-fist printing technique. What > is this, the Olan Mills of West Africa? > > This last one is probably his lab assistant's fault, but he certainly had > something to say about it: > > The use of huge exhibition prints underwhelms me. In the Circle of Fine > Arts you could not back up enough to view one of the prints without tripping > over someone or hitting the other wall. Perhaps worse, the use of large and > overwhelming prints reminds me of something I heard when I was eight: any > picture looks good blown up, but very few look good on a contact sheet. > > I don't have a problem with giving Salgado his due as a great journalist > photographer, but I do not think he is on a par with Smith, DDD, > Cartier-Bresson and on. > > Dante > > > > > Please, let's not get into speculation about Salgado's politics based on our > > interpretations of the contents of his images. I really don't think that's the > > point > > at all. > > > > For me, he's simply one of the great documentary photographers, and I find it > > exciting to be alive at the same time that he's still working. > > > > Emanuel Lowi > > Montreal > > -- > > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > > ------------ > Dante Stella > http://www.dantestella.com > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html