From: Thom Mitchell (tjmitch@ix.netcom.com)
Date: 08/30/02-08:59:16 AM Z
Speaking of invisibility, Eli Reed, a great photojournalist and also a very
large man, whose hands virtually hide the leica he uses, is able to blend
into the background and appear to be inert. Visible ,but completely part of
the environment. Lack of movement, patience, traveling light, knowing your
equipment and waiting for the right moment. Better photojournalists practice
this especially when they aren't trapped by daily deadlines tasked to get
"the shot" on a story. I always wondered how Nicholas Nixon was able to take
"candids" with his 8x10, especially focusing and framing. My background in
photojournalism draws me to that kind of usage of the 8x10. Anyone know more
of the mechanics of his work?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Weese" <cweese@earthlink.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 12:32 AM
Subject: Re: The Pictorial Nude and Pictorialism Generally
>
>
> > Carl, let me suggest that when you say you "know" what the small camera
> > "is for," you err. I don't think in fact ANYONE knows what ANY camera
> > "is for." That's what the excitement is about.
>
> Of course some genius may come along and invent something really and truly
> new to do with a camera of any size. I'm waiting. I'll steal from her
right
> away. And then make it my own.
>
> >
> > As for invisibility... That's a lot harder for a man than for a woman.
>
>
> That's actually a matter of craft--the invisibility. But that's not the
> right word. My former point was the lack of threatening presence:
> invisibility is literally impossible but practically you can do an
amazingly
> good imitation. It's a learned technique. As you know, I'm not exactly
> small. But my partner has pointed out that at particular times when I was
> totally immersed in a small camera project, I'd gotten so into the manner
of
> my shooting 24/7 that she'd lose me at the grocery store. Couldn't find
me,
> while looking right there. How many other six foot four people was I
hiding
> among?....Tina just came and looked over my shoulder at the computer
screen,
> and said, "yes, it used to drive me crazy the way you'd disappear at the
> supermarket in west philly" (that would be 1971). It was a craft skill
that
> I'd carefully practiced for years. It helps you make good pictures.
Snapping
> away in a crowd is, I suppose, a way to be invisible, but what will you
get?
> Snaps of a crowd.
>
> I spent my entire adolescence, which would be the decade of the sixties,
> taking pictures in NYC nearly every minute I wasn't in school. Times
Square,
> The Village, whatever. As I grew out of adolescence I realized how boring
> all that was, even though the pix were selling like hotcakes (and for
about
> that much money) as stock through Black Star. Strange to take a psychology
> class as an undergrad and find the textbook illustrated with some of your
> own pictures. Hey, I got forty bucks for that! You have to move on. When I
> realized I was making good pictures, pictures that would not sell as
stock,
> I knew I'd grown up, at least a little, as an artist.
>
> ---Carl
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