Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Come on, Tina...There's a big difference between being hired by an NGO or church group to shoot specific kinds of images - and they are gorgeous images you produce - and being a documentary photographer who takes commercial assignments, sells some news photos, inorder to spend months, or years, on a project that will end up in a book purchased by 2000 people or in a gallery where a comparative handful of people will see it. Do you really think that someone paid Gene Richards to hang around with and shoot crack addicts for a year to produce Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue. Or that someone like Giles Peres gets advances on his photo books. Sure, Richards did some of the Cocaine work for Life, which helped him do more of it. And Peres sells some of what he shoots while working on a project. But many of the biggest names in documentary photography are NOT ultimately making money on their work, and that work is not completely underwritten by anyone - unless you think that when Richards does a shoot for say, British Levis, and then supports his family with that money while he is shooting crack addicts, that British Levis is underwriting the work. The difference between what a Richards, or a Peres, or a Towel (sp), or a Meiselas does, and what you do in Central America or, for that matter, I do with families, is that the former are marching to the beat of their own drummer, and produce work that has to please no one but themselves. While you are producing work that will fulfill the specific needs of your clients - NGOs, while I am producing work that will fulfill the specific needs of my clients - families. Certainly both you and I have our own drummers laying down a beat for us, and we bring our own vision to our projects, but the end results must be what our clients are paying for - not necessarily what we think would be the strongest work. B. D. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Tina Manley Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 12:17 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: RE: [Leica] Documentary photography - pj At 11:55 AM 8/1/02 -0400, you wrote: >Good for you and Ron, Tina - seriously. But one church volunteer here and >one there is not going to change the world. That's my point. It already has changed the world - for the 43 families of Estanzuela. >But with all due respect, there >is a difference between what you are doing, which is in reality candid >commercial work commissioned by groups and causes trying to save the world, >the work of a traditional documentary photographer whose work is done >complete independently and is seen by a few people in books and a few more >people in magazines. Which traditional documentary photographers' work is not commissioned by somebody? If you want to make a difference with your photography, you have to find a sponsor who supports your cause. That sponsor could be a book publisher, magazine, or NGO. Unless, of course, you are independently wealthy and don't have to worry about expenses. Tina Tina Manley, ASMP http://www.tinamanley.com images available from: http://www.pdiphotos.com http://www.mira.com http://www.agpix.com http://www.newscom.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