“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” – Mary Ellen Mark
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hari says
I think honesty and directness really works
most of the time to open up people to be photographed. Another factor is intention(which Antonin Kratochvil calls it “your sweat which people can smell”). I dont know about “soul”, I hear too many such cliches thrown around by photographers and I am not sure it means anything if you dig deeper. What I find disturbing is the relationship between photographers who talk in such grand terms about their work and the people they photograph, but stop at that. There seems to be an eternal conflict between art and life. Many of them are great artists but complete jerks in real life. Their compassion is strictly limited to a viewfinder but doesnt extend to life beyond.
My BS-radar goes up whenever I hear Soul and things like that used carelessly.
hari says
I think honesty and directness really works
most of the time to open up people to be photographed. Another factor is intention(which Antonin Kratochvil calls it “your sweat which people can smell”). I dont know about “soul”, I hear too many such cliches thrown around by photographers and I am not sure it means anything if you dig deeper. What I find disturbing is the relationship between photographers who talk in such grand terms about their work and the people they photograph, but stop at that. There seems to be an eternal conflict between art and life. Many of them are great artists but complete jerks in real life. Their compassion is strictly limited to a viewfinder but doesnt extend to life beyond.
My BS-radar goes up whenever I hear Soul and things like that used carelessly.
Seshu says
Hari
Some photogs have earned the right to throw around words like “soul” but I hear what you are saying about how one can find “soul” in front of the camera, but not behind it. We are accosted with ironies all the time.
Seshu says
Hari
Some photogs have earned the right to throw around words like “soul” but I hear what you are saying about how one can find “soul” in front of the camera, but not behind it. We are accosted with ironies all the time.