RE: [Leica] PAW responses

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Hey, Carl, don't waste your film on the people unless you really have
something to say about them, or they have something to say to you. We see
far far to many meaningless shots of strangers; crossing streets, chewing,
blowing their noses, leering, looking, laughing, crying, which fail to tell
us anything about the people in the shots or the human conditon in general.
These photos lack the intimacy of portraits, and they lack the irony,
pathos, or real humor of classic street photography. They don't make us say,
'Wow! Look at that!' Rather, they make us say, 'Oh. That person looks
happy.' Or, 'that person looks sad.'

I'd say keep doing what you're doing. You seem to have a real eye for
bleakness and mystery - and that's a great eye to have. I find I can't look
at the photos you posted the other day without thinking, "what the hell's
this about? What's happening here? What happened here?" Well, okay, the
overgrown silo doesn't really do it for me, but the others definitely do.

Anyway, keep shooting - and good luck with the job hunt. Oh, and sell the
car and the kids before the Leica. ;-)

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 Carl Pultz
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 12:05 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] PAW responses


Thanks to several LUGers for the kind replies. Guess I am the "anti-Graham"
usually. That desolate feeling despite the happy, sunny light was just what
I hoped would come across in 1 and 3.

Have to admit that I wasn't really aware of the wire cutting across the sky
in 2, Rob. But, those cables are ubiquitous, additional evidence of man's
chaotic presence, and that is more the message intended in the composition
than any idealized graphical effect. It would have been better if I was a
foot taller.

It was hard to shoot into the light without a lens hood, using my left hand
to shade the camera. (No finder flare on an M2!) I also got lucky with 4.
The bank at the roadside was too high, so I held the camera over my head.
That is the uncropped frame, as are the others.

There are scenes of pure, natural beauty around here, but that isn't what
motivates me these days. The decay that Michael finds depressing I regard
as beautiful in the way it expresses American's abuse of the land, waste of
our money, contempt for our neighbors. And that wacky tradition of, "it's
my land, I can do what I want, damn ya."

There are no people, as Steve points out. BD is right that I chose these
shots as successful because they are expressive of people's presence
without the distraction of having people there. That's what is intended,
anyway. The first three are portraits, really, not landscapes, through the
land is part of the meaning. Call them humanscapes.

Most of my shots are peopleless. I'm usually too embarrassed to approach a
person or afraid of getting caught being a voyeur. Our thread months ago
about the ethics of street shooting and confrontational, abusive practices
expressed many of my opinions and hangups. Some photogs do develop a proper
way of handling such things, and I'm working on that.

I'm unemployed this summer, a victim of the tech sector meltdown. It's been
a great opportunity to practice photography as my main pursuit, shooting
almost every day, reading and looking at other's work, thinking about what
it means. It's a great luxury. Just glad I got the Leica before the axe
fell!

Thanks, again, for helping me learn. Next week, I hope to have some people
and animals to show.

Carl

- --
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