Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/05/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It seemed to be depicting a mood rather than a story about the kiss. I tried taking a picture of a lady dressed like a nurse soliciting donations for a charitable organization. Every time I lifted my camera, she would smile and wave to me. I finally asked her to just look normal and go about her businesses. She didn't, so I gave up. Had she complied, it would have been sort of staged, but I would not have felt guilty about it. I'm not convinced that Capa's picture is faked. If it was, it is not a convincing shot as a fake. I always felt that it looked too goofy to be fakes, but if you look at motion pictures of that era, dying surely did have a lot more drama in it than in real life (grabbing your heart, looking up to heaven, muttering a final statement, and collapsing with your eyes closed). Jeffery At 09:26 AM 5/12/2004, you wrote: >So am I right in assuming that you don't have a problem with the Doisneau >pic? It was, after all, commissioned by Life and used in the magazine as a >piece of photojournalism. Setting shots up was common practice at the >time, I gather, to every "insider's" knowledge. > >So why the controversy over the Capa pic? Is it because it's a war situation? > >There's a lot of debate in the UK at the moment over some pictures >published by a tabloid newspaper purporting to show British soldiers >abusing an Iraqi detainee, but which everyone (apart from the paper's >editor) now seem to believe were set up much later. This is a different >matter, as these pictures are being touted as proof of abuse. The Capa pic >isn't supposed to be proof of anything - we all know that soldiers get >shot in combat. It's power is symbolic. > >This is why it doesn't matter. The symbolism is still powerful. > >In fact I believe Capa himself said he didn't remember particularly taking >the shot, which I can quite believe. He certainly didn't see it until >after it was published. To his agency it was just a good shot, and no >agency is going to be in the business of tracking down a photographer in a >war zone to interrogate him about one pic before they sell it. > >P. > >At 8:57 am -0500, 12/5/04, Jeffery Smith wrote: > >It if were faked photojournalism, then I have a problem. Other than > that, I think he has some artistic freedom, much like an artist painting > something that doesn't exist or a novelist writing about something that > doesn't exist. I didn't always feel this way (it seemed like cheating). > > > >Jeffery > > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information