frank theriault wrote: >On 7/10/07, Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Bob W wrote: >> >> >Crimes Against Fashion is a superb photo. Come back in a few years >> >and that's the only one anyone will be interested in. that's not to >> >knock the rest, but human interest wins every time. >> >> Thanks Bob. That's a great compliment coming from you. > >I agree with Bob. That's a hell of a photo. I also agree with him >WRT interest in people photos. I know (and a landscape photographer >such as yourself may find this blasphemous) that I find 60 year old >HCB photos a heck of a lot more compelling than 60 year old Ansel >Adams photos of Yosemite (or wherever). > >The rocks and mountains are still there (although I know in some >places they're fast disappearing, or having condos perches upon >themj), but the people and the situations they were in are gone >forever, captured only for that split second on film (or now, >sensors). > >That's what I find compelling about photos of humanity.
I suppose it depends on your point of view. I prefer Ansel because I see people every day but rarely glimpse, Denali, for example :) I expect most landscape (and abstract and still-life, etc, etc.) aficionados feel roughly the same way but there's no doubting the "people photo" enthusiasts are in the majority. (Of course Michael Jackson outsells Mozart, so what does the "majority" know?) My favorite photos aren't about content at all: Light, shadow, shape, form is what I look for. Possibly my all-time favorite photos are Edward Weston's peppers. Interestingly, my favorite HCB photos are the ones in which the human form is a small part of the image, like "Mario's Bike", of "deleteme" fame (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrerabelo/70458366) One thing I strongly dislike is photographs that don't stand on their own; that require backstory, explanation or other "metadata": Information beyond what's shown in the frame. I found quite a bit of that at the Pulitzer Prize exhibit (though not as much as I expected, given that it *is* news photography). -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
