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Response to Just Another Street Shot

from tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com)
I've seen thousands of people on the street who look just as bored, angry, (outraged, if you think so, Jack) and in a constant state of resentment at their self imposed condition... and there was no camera in sight. McDonalds and 7-11's the world over are staffed with thousands of people who have this expression on their face 24/7. It has nothing to do with being photographed.

There is no photographic justification for why this image is put together like it is. You seek to impose rules, standards and qualifiers on this image that have no relevance to it. That's why you don't understand what it has to say. You look for some device, some predetermined niche that it can fit into that will allow you to say "Oh! That's what it means". This is because you are a photographer (or currently a photography critic) at the expense of other experience. Quit looking at it like it is an object to be dissected according to photographic rules and accept that it is an image of an intensely unhappy woman propelling herself through a hard, out of balance, indifferent world. A great, historically important photograph?... no, but an insightful and well recognized moment? Yep. It would be a fine supporting word in a larger paragraph of intense emotional images.

By the way, it was Gertrude Stein I quoted, earlier. Is that what you are referring to as a "Surrealist Manifesto"?

"Non specific inanimate discussion of the life of..."... what the hell are you talking about? is that related to this rather animated discussion in some direct way? Please ellucidate... t

p.s. "presumed assumption" is redundantly repetative (smiley face here). I make no presumed assuptions... I state my case. And enjoy the parry and thrust.

(posted 8615 days ago)

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