Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]There is nothing new about HCB coming across as pompous and self-important. But then I'll take HCB's art and contribution to photography any day over the art and contribution of, say, Eisenstadt, whom, it is universally agreed, was a truly charming gentleman. ;-) 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 Robert Rose Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 12:12 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Cc: mvhoward@mac.com Subject: [Leica] Article about HCB Martin is absolutely correct. Also, in yesterday's Los Angeles Times Magazine, was an article about the film school at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Instead of teaching technique or even film history, the film school concentrates on "film theory". This turns out to be philosophy, not film, and certainly not art. It has more in common with the deconstructionists such as Derrida, and is decidedly (and openly) left-wing political theory. That being said, from the HCB article I had the impression that HCB was pompous, and self-important. He seems to denigrate photography, forgetting that his wife is a photographer. He also comes across pretentious, and again confuses pi (3.14...) with the Golden Ratio phi (1.618...), which he calls the "Golden Rule." (Of course, as we noted before, that could simply be the error of his interviewers.) I would be interested to know if others had the same reaction to the article. The man has a body of photographic work that stands on its own, and is excellent. I think he is right to keep his privacy, for at the moment he doesn't have much to say. Bob Rose Martin Howard wrote: >>Show me any artist who thinks that art is in talking about it rather than doing it, and I'll show you a quasi-intellectual wannabe artist philosophy major. >>That doesn't mean to say that talking about various aspects of art cannot be interesting and fruitful in its own right -- but it doesn't constitute art in itself. Unless, of course, you're a quasi-intellectual wanna be artist philosophy major who then goes on to label it a "performance piece". - -- 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