For those of you who beleive we are under attack from teh forces of
censorship, the truth is, we all lost that fight long ago. It is not
religion, sex, moraility or art that censors our modrn day photography, it
is money.
On a totally different list, I have read stories from photo journalists
who have litterally put thier lives on the line wto take photos of the wars
in the former Yugoslavia, the massacre in Rwanada, the terrible slaughter
in Algeria, and more. I cannot tell you all how many times I have read
aobut a photographer who cannot sell his photos to the magazines and
papers. If it were just one or two, I woudl say perhpas thier work is not
that good, but ovr and over and over I read these tales.
No, modern day masters of media would perfer to show us endless shots of
celebrities, latest fashions, etc. yet how often is this issue addressed?
How many people on this list have seen photographs form the slaughter in
Rwanda? IN the period fo two months, 500,000 people were slaughtered, many
ot them litterally hacked to death by hand, an atrocity approaching the
scale of the Nazi's during WW2.
And what fires up the passions of people on this list? Think about it.
As for Mr. Sturges, well, I am told there is an old joke in Hollywood (and
other places) that makes the rounds every year or two in a new incarnation,
that essentially goes that every time some religous group comdemns a
pciture, you are guarnteed a best seller. Sad, but true. If any major
book seller were to publically ban any of Mr. Sturges books, you would have
a guaranteed best seller, just simply from the press about the affair.
The truth is, if it is percieved that a photograph will sell, then
somebody somewhere will always print it. If it si perceived that a picture
will not sell, then it will not, which is why there are so few
photojournalists out there anymore covering real news - that is, something
other than sports & entertainment oriented news.
If the religous right were really all that powerfull, all the casinos,
massage parlours, breweries, Playboy, Penthouse, etc, etc, etc, all accross
the world would be shut down overnight. Stalin once describe religon in
the Soviet Union as a nail - the harder he hit it, the deeper he drove it
in. The opposite is also true. Some statistics suggest that more alcohol
was consumed during the prohibition in the USA than before or afterwards.
Once you "ban" soemthing to any degree, you make it a coveted commodity.
Example, people who ran Star Trek web sites were all approached about 18
months ago with nasty letters about copyright infringment by Paramount,
MSN, et all. . Know what happened? An almost immediate underground trade
in "forbidden Trek" pictures was started up on the net. The original
lawyers letters about web site copyright infringement became collertors
items, and reportetly command a high price in some quarters. In the end,
the effect of of the "ban" was a complete a total opposite to the original
intent of the people who launched the letters in the first place.
My final point is we seem to be reaching a point of near hysteria on this
list. Fear, in any form is dangerous, perhaps more dangerous than than the
object of the fear. Let me point out that these same groups that are
targeting Mr. Sturges are at the same time targeting many, many other
books. If Barnes & Noble banned every book they got a complaint about from
some special interest groups , without exaggertion, there would not be a
single book left on any shelf anywhere. If you really wish to support Mr.
Sturges, buy his books. In the end B&N and other large bookstores will
listen not to community standards or special interest groups, but to their
accountants.
joe
http://www.multiboard.com/~joneil
B&W, Large Format Images From Southern Ontario