[Leica] Born At Risk...

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

Peter, you're batting 1000!

Photographing family and friends, whether for personal satisfaction or
pay, can be just a rewarding, and in some ways even more meaningful,
than spending a life-time chronicling the tattooed hog riders and crack
addicts. Chronicling the life of a family is of immense value and
meaning to the family, and to future generations of the family. Further,
its of sociological value.

When I took Eugene Richards' workshop last summer the best photos I shot
- at the end of the week on my own - were of Richards and his son. And
when I looked at the slides on the light table - having had a really
awful week in terms of the quality of what I'd been shooting - I said to
myself, "These MUST have been shot with Leica glass!! :-)" (Just kidding
---) I looked at them and thought, 'I'm NOT Gene Richards; I don't want
to spend a year living with crack addicts; THIS is what I do - and it
has real value.

Besides, when a really, really successful photo book only sells 3,000
copies, what does any of it matter to anyone other than the photographer
and his or her immediate family?

:-)

B. D.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Peter Klein
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 12:58 PM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: RE: [Leica] Born At Risk...



Richard:  I just realized that my remarks might be interpeted as
critical of you.  Which is not how I intended them at all--I knew you
were making a joke.  The exchange between you and B.D. simply provided
food for thought, and I bit.

As for chucking your camera, "don't jump kid, you've got so much to live
for."  :-)  Those of us who mostly photograph their family, friends,
interests and immediate surroundings sometimes feel like lesser
creatures than those who photograph global human misery, the mean
streets, tatooed goth babes and arty abstractions.  But that ain't where
it's at.  I think the key is to go beyond mere recording and put
something of yourself into the images.  In other words, don't just take
a picture of a (whatever), take a picture of how the (whatever) feels,
or how you feel about the (whatever).

I try to photograph people with the kind of love and empathy that I see
in Tina's photographs. I look for expressions that characterize the
person. I also like quirky visual humor.  Sometimes I think that my
photos are usually not bad enough to be panned, but usually not good
enough to evoke many oohs and ah here.  Sometimes I succeed.

Also, remember that this is a tough crowd.

--Peter

"Richard F. Man" <richard-lists@imagecraft.com> wrote:

> Heh, I was just being tongue in cheek. You know I have the greatest 
> respect for your photos. In fact, now that I have done some "travel 
> photos," I have a lot of respect on Karen's Ethnophotography and 
> Tina's stuff. It is so darn tough to shoot what you guys do!!! When I 
> look at my photos, I almost feel like chunking the whole setup out the

> windows and take up something else....

At 06:03 AM 8/1/2004, B. D. Colen wrote:

>Thanks, Richard - I think. But how about a reality check here...Tri-X 
>shot at 800 "look(s) like crap as large prints" unless viewed from an 
>appropriate viewing distance - just as digital looks like crap unless



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