Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/07/11

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Subject: [Leica] Re:More comments: how do you use your images
From: scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)
Date: Mon Jul 11 19:16:58 2005
References: <200507111132.j6BBQi1F042754@server1.waverley.reid.org> <42D27993.4090803@telefonica.net> <42D297C6.9000504@adrenaline.com> <00FC4CB8-F26A-11D9-95A7-000393199A4A@cox.net>

Oh, I plan to live a long time too (I hope). I'm only 39 right now, quite
sick, but hopeful for the future.

Here's another reason I take photographs of people, maybe less depressing.

People view themselves a certain way. Maybe they feel too old, or too
young, or they don't like their job or their weight, or worry about paying
for college for their kids.  You know, everyday stuff. Their friends and
relatives view them a certain way too - big man on campus, ne'er do well,
dandy, slouch, bore, joker - you get the idea.

A photographic portrait, or even a candid actually, can make a person 
appear
in a different light, bring out a different aspect of his or her 
personality, not
hidden but perhaps eclipsed by the persona. Both to the subject and to his
or her family and friends - a new vision of a possible (or actual) self.

This possibility is really exciting to me. To allow people to see themselves
in ways they might not have seen themselves before. In some very minor
way, it might lend a helping hand to hope and/or compassion in a very
focused (subject and viewers) way.

We do this with children, hyperbolizing some aspect of their charcter.
Little slugger, brave child at the doctor, oh so beautiful with mommy's
makeup and shoes on. We thusly encourage the children around us to
see and realize new possibilities in themselves.

Photographs of people can be a rather subtle means to do the same
things for adults.  I always find it interesting to hear reactions on a
photograph both from the subject and from his/her acquaintances.
The level of engagement often suprises me.

BTW, some of my thoughts on this aspect of people photography
comes from an essay by Michel Foucault called "What is Enlightenment"
which had a profound effect on me as a college student, and since then.
He talks about characterizing not what we are or must be, but what we not
necessarily or no longer need to be. A certain kind of liberation, what 
he calls
"the undefined work of freedom."

Scott

Stasys Petravicius wrote:

> Scott- I am not anticipating my death- I hope to be around long enough 
> at least to use the DMR I have on order!  And- it is a depressing 
> (sic?) subject.
>
> ps- going to another memorial Thurs pm. Stasys
> On Jul 11, 2005, at 9:01 AM, Scott McLoughlin wrote:
>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I am hoping to stimulate a bit more discussion on this topic: why 
>>>> do you take the images, what do you do with them, how big do you 
>>>> print, how do you print, why do you print etc
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I hope to produce a body of work that my family and kin and friends 
>> can look
>> at once I'm dead, or at least, once many of the subjects of my 
>> pictures are dead.
>>
>> Lately, I'm printing more and shooting less.  I figure that once I'm 
>> dead, some boxes
>> of prints will be more accessible than some hard drives.
>>
>> It's funny to look at pictures of dead people that mean something to 
>> you. Sometimes
>> a beautiful picture grabs you. Other times something prosaic can 
>> bring you to tears -
>> a prom picture, or a shot from summer camp, or the pictures on your 
>> mother's
>> bedroom walls when she was a teenager.
>>
>> Sometimes what's more remarkable is to think of who took *that* picture.
>> My grandfather (still living) had a real eye and knack with a brownie 
>> camera
>> in his day, and I've often been startled by his compositions.
>>
>> When someone dies, alot of things get lost or thrown away. Closets of 
>> clothes,
>> boxes of old jewelry, dog eared paper backs, keep sakes that will 
>> mean little
>> to anyone but the deceased.
>>
>> But pictures get thumbed through and passed around and circulated. I've
>> seen tin types (sp?) of my great grandmother, along with her diary which
>> is mostly records of her meagre finances as she kept house for some
>> better off relatives as a young girl.
>>
>> Photography is my hobby. I enjoy the process and the gear. Futzing with
>> an image is a joy in its own right.  But I have to say that for me, 
>> the result,
>> the product or print, has alot to do with our mortality, the 
>> anticipation of
>> death, and sparking the memory of those still living.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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Replies: Reply from stasys1 at cox.net (Stasys Petravicius) ([Leica] Re:More comments: how do you use your images)
In reply to: Message from FELIXMATURANA at telefonica.net (Félix López de Maturana) ([Leica] Re:More comments: how do you use your images)
Message from scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin) ([Leica] Re:More comments: how do you use your images)
Message from stasys1 at cox.net (Stasys Petravicius) ([Leica] Re:More comments: how do you use your images)