Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/01

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Subject: [Leica] Its about ponds - was: VERY FUNNY LUG related story...
From: Adam Bridge <abridge@idea-processing.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 14:58:21 -0800

On 3/1/02 at 1:43 PM, bdcolen@earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) thoughtfully wrote:

> 
> "Well, I have this friend who works at a Starbucks, and she asked her
> manager, and he said it would be okay for me to shoot there. But do you
> think it will be interesting enough?"
> 
> !!!!!@#@
> 
> Granted, I'll believe it when I see it - and told him to comb his hair, tuck
> in his shirt, and get his butt over to the Starbucks in question and make
> SURE that the manager says 'okay' to him being there from opening to
> closing.
> 

I hope it works out for him. I hope he goes and just hangs out for a day WITHOUT
the camera before he goes back to shoot just so he figures out how to see the
space and where we might work.

His thought that it might not be interesting enough is, in itself, fascinating.
I have this theory about frogs and ponds. In the past, before mass
communication, it was possible for a person of normal talents to be a relatively
big frog in a small, local, pond. A good pianist was appreciated, a goof
vocalist, a good photographer.

Today the standards are set world-wide and we're deluged by art which dwarfs
ordinary talents. And for the most part we judge what we see by those standards.
So the pond has gotten VERY big and you have to be a REALLY big frog to make a
noticable splash.

Except, of course, we can form communities, like this LUG, and go back to the
smaller pond - holding off our judgements about what is good that are framed
over on the ocean-sized pond next door.

Which is one of the real benefits of the internet in constructing communities.

Thanks for sharing BD, I wish your student the best and hope he will be excited
about what he sees and his work is published for us to view.

Adam
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