Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/07/12

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Lecia Street Photography in the Middle East
From: eboehmjr at gmail.com (Eric Boehm, Jr)
Date: Sat Jul 12 12:17:57 2008
References: <36e5c0b10807111915x1393e7ebwdbed47980e0902c5@mail.gmail.com> <3cad89990807120938m53ba478eu6041207c8e4d0dc@mail.gmail.com> <48790A26.1080003@zabrovsky.com>

Alex,

I am not after a series of photographs that captures the entirey of a
nation. I am not after an "equal and ballanced view". Life is
subjective. Photographs are likewise subjective. What am I supposed to
do, make sure I include one of each in my series, rich and poor, young
and old, black and white, so that I can say "You see I have
represented the country fairly? Does that make sense?When Salgado
visits Brazil, does he go to the Discos in Rio and photograph the
girls dancing, or does he go to the Barrio and photograph the
flavellas? When Cartier Bresson photographs Paris, does he go to the
chic cafes and the opera house, or does he hang around the train
station, snapping strange characters? The point is the viewer does not
want to see the familiar. For that he can go to the shopping mall. The
viewer wants to see something he does not normally see. The consumer
of these images, or ANY photographic images, ART in general, are not
the inhabitants of the dusky corners of shouks. They are the people
with money. The people who pay entrance fees to go to museums. This is
the reality we live in. When the poor and destitue from India buy
their Leicas and come to the United States, they will photograph Rodeo
Drive in Berverly Hills, BECAUSE their consumers will want to see
that.

Eric Boehm

On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 3:46 PM, Alex <alex@zabrovsky.com> wrote:
> I visited Eric's site and enjoyed the images but that is exactly the 
> feeling
> I got looking at the pictures.
> While the images do convey a mood of Israel, it does only one, probably not
> the most prominent one, kind of niche rather then the whole feeling of
> Israeli life and reality.
> Luckily being Israeli and knowing the inside of local life I can position
> properly Eric's images in my perception of Israeli life, population and
> reality, but for a foreigner, claiming the particular Israeli set to convey
> the general Israeli mood may be obviously somewhat misleading..
> I guess, this is just as Eric saw Israel, the places and locations he was
> able to visit and photograph, which is fine, but it certainly doesn't
> represent the Israel in the whole, perhaps its 20-30%...
>
> Best, Alex
> Israel
>
> Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:
>
>> Eric,
>> I really enjoyed the photographs, but I would like to ask a question - is
>> Israel a country populated primarily by old people?
>> Cheers
>> Jayanand
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 7:45 AM, Eric Boehm, Jr <eboehmjr@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Dear Lugites,
>>>
>>> Just set up my website at http://www.streetphotographyisrael.com/.
>>> Would love to get feedback from Leica users interested in street
>>> photography. I have always used film and still do to some extent. When
>>> the digital craze hit some years ago, and anyone could produce a
>>> decent photograph without all the toil in the darkroom, I lost
>>> interest and moved on to other things. Setting up this website however
>>> brought me back to my first love, photography. Does anyone still use
>>> film? Does anyone still shoot with the M6 in any of its versions?
>>>
>>>
>>> Eric W.A. Boehm, PhD
>>> Assistant Professor, Microbiology
>>> Department of Biological Sciences
>>> Kean University, 1000 Morris Ave.
>>> Union, NJ 07083
>>> 908-737-3654
>>> eboehm@kean.edu
>>>
>>> Research Website: http://www.eboehm.com/
>>> Photography Website: http://www.streetphotographyisrael.com/
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>



-- 
Eric W.A. Boehm, PhD
Assistant Professor, Microbiology
Department of Biological Sciences
Kean University, 1000 Morris Ave.
Union, NJ 07083
908-737-3654
eboehm@kean.edu

Research Website: http://www.eboehm.com/
Photography Website: http://www.streetphotographyisrael.com/

In reply to: Message from eboehmjr at gmail.com (Eric Boehm, Jr) ([Leica] Re: Lecia Street Photography in the Middle East)
Message from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Re: Lecia Street Photography in the Middle East)
Message from alex at zabrovsky.com (Alex) ([Leica] Re: Lecia Street Photography in the Middle East)