Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Mar 18, 2010, at 8:10 PM, Vince Passaro wrote: > I don't who "you" is here Jeffery but my point was that the least safe and > comforting the artist, the better the artist. The great artists who've been > in practice and at home obnoxious and worse are legion, and I do believe > there is a correlation between their vision and the barbed wire they seem > to > be wearing as jock straps. Being nice doesn't get the job done, most of the > time. There are of course exceptions. Many. Still, if you want to use > "obnoxious" as the measuring term, you've lost most of us; it's a school > marm's word, an accountant's word, a ticket collector's word, and efforts > not to be obnoxious while likely good for the smooth operation of polite > society (and all its hidden crimes) are not interesting or important to us. > Sometimes the best technique is 'silence, exile and cunning' which I think > is what you really mean, outside the ninth grade geography teacher vocab of > 'obnoxious'; and sometimes it's not and the artist has to become something > of a terrorist. Sometimes we have to INTERRUPT. There is no way really to > be discreet taking people's photos on the street and indeed one of the > complaints was not that he was up in people's faces but that he was trying > to be discreet: far away with telephoto lenses -- ie, "creepy." > > As far as his work goes (I'm about to go look at it), we should all keep in > mind that art of the second order makes art of the first order possible. > And > on down the line. So Rabs is quite right: he is us, period. hi Vince, you may be at least provocative at times, and I don't always agree wth you, God forbid, but you are brilliant as a writer, a thinker, and a provocateur, Steve Steve > > Vince > > On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 9:34 PM, Jeffery Smith <jsmith342 at gmail.com> > wrote: > >> You agree that the more obnoxious the photographer, the better the >> photographer, as long as he's doing whatever he wants? Cool. >> >> On Mar 18, 2010, at 8:04 PM, Vince Passaro wrote: >> >>> I agree with Rabs. Of course. And a further thought: I remember one day >> not >>> long ago -- within the last decade that means, to us oldies -- seeing a >>> photographer with a Leica 35mm camera on Fifth Ave near the corner of >> 57th >>> or 58th St I think (possibley a few blocks osouth of there) standing in >> the >>> flow of the crowd just whirling right and left and all the way around >> taking >>> pictures of people only .7 meters from their faces in many cases, or >>> sometimes a bit further. He was like a dervish: to watch him was to see a >>> man who was completely lost in what he was doing, the faces in the crowd, >>> images momentarily clarified within a blur, him catching them probably >> not >>> in full focus most of hte time, taking pictures (and manually advancing >> the >>> film) as fast as I've ever seen anyone with that kind of equipment work. >> I >>> deeply admired him. He looked insane. He was frightening people. Some >>> people, that is. It was New York after all and many just made their way >>> around him and kept on without a backward glance. >>> >>> Here's a very short, famous, Eastern-ish poem for street photographer's >>> everywhere. The title is "In a Station of the Metro" - it's only two >> lines >>> long: >>> >>> The apparition of these faces in a crowd; >>> Petals on a wet black bough. >>> >>> it's like a Capa picture double exposed onto an Ansel Adams.... >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 8:37 PM, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> >> wrote: >>> >>>>> I think the size of his cannon...er....Canon..is what is making him so >>>>> conspicuous and is what is unnerving his subjects. My reference to the >>>> Leica >>>>> RF is not so he can be like HCB, but so he might be less conspicuous. >>>> Robert >>>>> Capa's Contax would be fine too. Using a big SLR with a telephoto to >> get >>>>> pictures of young ladies is paparazzi-ish, not streetphotography-ish. >>>>> >>>>> Jeffery >>>> >>>> >>>> I think he can set up an 8x10 view camera if he feels like it if he's >> not >>>> blocking the sidewalk too much. >>>> >>>> [Rabs] >>>> Mark William Rabiner >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> 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 >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information