[Leica] Born At Risk...

[Jim at hemenway.com (Jim Hemenway)]

BD:

You should be giving workshops instead of taking them!


B. D. Colen wrote:

> 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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