Shel Belinkoff wrote in speaking of a Leica list:
>
>snip
>
> There's also a big difference in the type of photos presented. Here (on the PUG)
> there are many pics of flowers, trees, buildings, and not that many
> photos of people, apart from what is often described as "portraits".
> There are almost no "flower" type pics on the list, and the people
> photos tend to be a lot more interesting and dynamic - people
> photographed doing something other than looking into the camera and
> smiling. Perhaps the more dynamic nature of the photos..etc.
>snip
Do I detect an air of pretension wafting through the oft vacuous halls
of the PDML? A portrait is much more than someone "looking into the
camera and smiling." A portrait utilizes all the tools at the
photographers disposal in an attempt to capture the spirit of the
subject. Some fail. Some succeed. But a good portrait is every bit as
dynamic as the politically correct, Leica-toter snapshots that you can
find where those folks tend to congregate. Yes, I'm being harsh, but
those grainy slice-of-life photos are neither more worthy nor more
interesting than nature photographs, architectural photographs, or
portraits. Flowers are beautiful, and when one can capture or enhance
that beauty -- interpret that beauty -- one creates art. Just ask Monet.
On a strictly personal level, I find little that interests me in
photography that attempts to record the real world. (I did quite a bit
of it. I worked as a magazine photographer for many years.) If I'm going
to look at world as it really exists, I'd much rather do it in person.
If I'm going to record the world on film, I'd rather interpret it. Of
course this is a matter of personal taste. But to assume that one type
of photography is necessarily more dynamic or more correct than another
is nothing more than a pretension. A portrait is not just someone
looking into the camera and smiling. And the PUG is packed with artful photographs.
Paul Stenquist
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