Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/04/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I could equally provide photographic evidence - if not "proof" - that the nation of my birth, the UK, and my chosen country of residence, Germany are on the verge of social collapse. Half-demolished factories, empty housing, a shortly to be demolished shopping centre, rubbish-filled redevelopment sites with dirty children playing on them, overgrown gardens, burned-out cars, mangled bicycles - unfortunately we don't have tumbleweed in Germany, perhaps I should import some. Just take a very wide angle lens and process everything in BW with high-contrast and a little too dark with a moody sky - perhaps also throw in a few raw close-ups of some pensioner with a well-lived in face working on his allotment garden (unshaven and wearing his tatty gardening trousers and shirt, of course - otherwise his missus would kill him for dirtying his Sunday best) trying to at least grow a few home-grown vegetables to survive. Perhaps a couple of homeless men or women begging near classy shopping malls, a couple of Romanian kids or amputee adults engaged in organised street begging for their rich bosses (this is true!) , a stray dog or two, empty shops, desolate streets (if you get up early enough and it's raining) - the ingredients are all there. Just choose your perspectives and locations - but always remain "unbiased" (it's always nice to hear/read such an interesting new theory about photojournalism). Douglas Spencer Cheng wrote: > Phillip, > > Every photographer, indeed every human being, has prejudices and > biases. That is just who we are. Tina has hers and you have yours just > as I have mine. The biases shows in every picture we take and every > sentence we write. So be it. Learn to deal with it. > > If you don't agree with Tina's perspective on life, present your own. > Please! > > I've seen grandma & grandpa sorting through the garbage cans on the > streets of Shanghai late at night looking for anything of value that > can be sold (no, they are not street people!). If I had taken some > photos and showed them to you, would you accuse me of bias? Is that an > accurate view of China? It would be my perspective and it is neither > right or wrong. > > Regards, > Spencer > > On Apr 16, 2009, at 9:41, Philip Clarke wrote: > >> But you chose happy smiling (well apart from the out of focus kid with >> tears) children in under developed circumstances and haven't balanced >> the assignment at all. There's no indication of moving forwards in those >> pictures, India is reduced to candle light and children behind barbed >> wire, South America to dirty clothing and water. I find it remarkable >> that you regard these images as showing people improving their lives. If >> you see only happy families then I suggest you look again, because you >> really really are giving an entirely different impression of other >> nations. >> >> I don't have an agenda. These images are trite, as an assignment it is >> unbalanced, as a body of work it is patronising. Good colour balancing >> though. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >