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Re: [OM] IMG: Trust, Color

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Trust, Color
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:48:40 -0600
Moose wrote:
> As to subjects, I heartily agree. I was given a book of his images, and
there is a sense of posing,
> sometimes warily, and an obvious distance between photographer and
subject. Not always bad,
> as his most famous image shows. I think it's the tension that creates the
image.

This is too funny. I had typed up a paragraph that said almost exactly the
same thing Moose wrote, except his grammar is better. I deleted it because
I thought it was a little too pretentious. However, now that Moose has
acknowledged the elephant in the room, I'll go ahead and express my further
thoughts.

Steve's McCurry's photographs all too frequently look posed. The unposed
shots look posed and the posed shots look posed. He works from longer
distance and generally doesn't create the intimate "I'm right there
speaking with you" characteristic. McCurry's shots are certainly what I
would call "witness" pictures. They tell the story very effectively, but
are largely of the "you are here witnessing this event with me"
perspective. Excellent, though they are, they generally miss something.

Tina Manley's photographs fill the same role, but they tend to then go a
little different direction. You aren't just "witnessing", but you are
"involved". She has the unique ability to create a photograph in which I,
the viewer, am not just witnessing what is going on, but actually
participating in the scene--even though I am not.

Photojournalists are taught that they are the "witness" to events. Tina, on
the other hand shows us that the function of a "witness" is second to being
a "human".

In some convoluted way, I see parallels between Tina Manley and Arthur
Fellig (Weegee). Although the subject matter is mostly different and the
styles are vastly divergent, what made Weegee usually so effective in his
photographs is that his subjects were his people. He would have been there
even without a camera. For both of these individuals, the camera is an
excuse, not the reason to be there.

There. Done.

--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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