Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/03
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At 10:20 AM 11/3/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>Does it matter that Kertesz directed some of his pictures? The photograph of
>two lovers kissing on a park bench is iconic - on postcards everywhere. Does
>it matter that they were his friends, who were in love, who he asked to sit
>on the bench and embrace. Or that Gary Winogrand - regarded by most to be
>the "the" maestro of street photography - would "insert" his children in a
>scene ("Go on in
> > there and do something interesting.") as the picture needed just that one
>additional thing for it to work.
>
>Not in the least they are still as real - and as fictitious - as if they had
>come across them by happenstance.
It matters to me, as the photographer. Somehow a spontaneous, unposed
photograph tells more about the people in the photograph than about the
photographer. A photo like this
one: http://www.leica-gallery.net/tinamanley/image-29684.html
tells me about the relationship between the father, mother, and baby. If I
had directed them - now you sit here in the doorway and hold the baby and
you hold out your hand to touch the baby's hand - then the photograph would
be about acting and directing, not about feelings. It would be an ad for
bluejeans or straw hats instead of a moment in real lives. I hate
"life-style" stock photographs for that reason.
It might be subtle difference, but, to me, it's there.
Tina
Tina Manley, ASMP
www.tinamanley.com
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