----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Whaley"
Subject: Re: PAW PESO - Breakfast in Bed
This sort of crap is totally absurd.
Shel's image is at the heart of photography, and historically always has been.
The entire span of publishing photographic images is not to please everybody's taste for knowing what the world is like, but to record it. Were it not for the unique eye and recording efforts of many photographers, the world would be more ignorant of the "human condition," wherever it exists, and for whatever reason.
The only "statement" that Shel, or any other image maker is making is, "Here is what _I_ saw, and now I show it to you. I'm not asking you to like it. It is what it is. What you do with the thoughts that arise when you view it, that's entirely up to you. I've done my job, which is portraying the world as I saw it..."
Since people seem to object to the less than pretty pictures as having a "political agenda", I think someone (me, I guess) should point out that one of the most popular and prolific "landscape photographers" had a very powerful political motivation when he was out taking his work.
Ansel Adams was a very strong proponent of the US National Park system, and was, IIANM, responsible for the formation of more than one National Park, through lobbying and sometimes more direct intervention with the political process.
So, to be fair, if we are going to chastise some people for "street photography", we should also castigate those who choose to take prety pictures of mountain ranges, since they must have a political agenda as well.
Or, we could cut the bullshit and accept that people will photograph what they will photograph, and will post links to the list, hopefully with the occassioanl warning that the picture isn't meant to please everyone.
William Robb
