Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/07/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Emanuel, I have to disagree with your regulations. They may have some merit when one is learning things like rules but, as with most rules (and particularly rules having to do with aesthetics), they are only waypoints on the road to personal style and expression. If you look at the nude woman in Manet's Dejeuner sur l'Herbe she's looking at the viewer. Why should Manet be able to get away with this and not a photographer? Where was it written or decreed that the camera is always supposed to be the omniscient, third-person observer or which the subject is unawares? For that matter who says photographs have to be sharp? We become slaves to the technology because we've been indoctrinated by the marketing and the MTF charts to think that this lens is sharper than that lens. I think it was Stieglitz's New York City winter snow scene with the horse that is breathtakingly unsharp. Getting back to subject/camera eye contact, Cartier-Bresson's photo of the tranvestites doing each other's hair has them looking at the camera as does Robert Franks cross-dressers (or whatever they are) in The Americans where the one is holding his hand in front of his face. So, too, with HCB's portrait of Ezra Pound looking at the camera although that is a portrait and subject to its own set of definitions. These are ones that come immediately to my mind. Thanks for sharing your opinion, though. Carl Sander Socolow Emanuel wrote: Message: 7 Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:35:07 -0400 From: EPL <manolito@videotron.ca> Subject: [Leica] Re: Leica Street Photography To: lug@leica-users.org Message-ID: <C4A2904B.2BFB%manolito@videotron.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII I dislike most photos where the person is looking at the photographer, into the lens. To do so violates the theory of 4th wall removal which governs theatre. It only works when the face is truly extraordinary, a surprise, like McCurry's Afghan girl with the piercing world-weary green eyes. But I also much prefer to see the white of at least one eye, and both are better. Adds immeasurably to the alive-ness of the subject. Otherwise, poses seem lifelessly statuesque. Emanuel -- Carl Sander Socolow Socolow Photography www.carlsandersocolow.com www.socphoto.com Inventing the unknown calls for new forms. A. Rimbaud Confidentiality Note: The information contained in this email and document(s) attached are for the exclusive use of the addressee and may contain confidential, privileged and non-disclosable information. If the recipient of this email is not the addressee, such recipient is strictly prohibited from reading, photocopying, distributing or otherwise using this email or its contents in any way.