Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/12/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Madison: http://www.leica-gallery.net/wccjr/image-46065.html ----------------------------------------- In a message dated 12/15/2004 11:30:33 A.M. Central Standard Time, bdcolen@MIT.EDU writes: Richard Taylor observed that the Gladwell New Yorker article while interesting, had nothing to tell us about "Leica photography" because, after all, unless a photo is an abstract, we can look at it and instantly know what it's about and what's going on...Which leads me to observe.... ------- Ah, but let's here it for the literal minded! Richard, surely you aren't suggesting that photographs of people and situations - 1/2 to 1/8000th of a second slices of reality - can't be interpreted many different ways by many different observers? We all bring to our observation of every photograph our entire life experience - and all our life experiences are different. A group of us can look at the same photo and come up with either slightly, or widely varying interpretations of the scene before us. Last spring at the end of each week's class I'd show my students a photograph and ask they to write the first 250 words of a short story based on what they saw - the variation in what they came up with was astounding. Granted, they were reaching, but go to Bill Clough's PAW - I believe for '03, but it might be '02, to see Madison. The bottom line for me is that without ambivalence, it's the incredibly rare street photo or public scene - non-news photo - that's worth the time it takes to even look at it. B. D. Regards, Sonny http://www.sonc.com Natchitoches, Louisiana Oldest continuous settlement in La Louisiane ?galit?, libert?, crawfish