Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 07:49:09 +1300
From: Michael Kopp <mkopp@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [OM] were you just baiting us?
<snip>
Galen Rowell was a fine photographer. He may even have been considered
"great" by "most people" -- but if so, "most people" don't understand the
meaning of the word "great", or they are using it -- as most people use
language today (there's another almost-absolute statement) -- in a degraded
way.
Greatness in photography means something transcendent about the images.
Another absolute statement if I ever heard one. Dick Cavett once
asked the film critic for the New Republic, Stanley Kaufmann, what
defines a great film. His reply was, "If it transforms your life".
What he meant was if you were a different person after seeing it than
before. But many would argue that greatness is in the eye of the
beholder.
In this beholder's eye, Akira Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" is one
of the greatest films ever made. One of the reasons is because it
dealt so beautifully with the best and worst of the human condition.
Someone else's idea of a great film could well be "My Cousin Vinny".
For all their beauty and depth of feeling about nature, Galen Rowell's
pictures are not considered "great" by people who judge photography
according to principles of artistic merit -- most of which have nothing to
do with light.
This is not to downplay the importance of light to good pictures or great
images.
But light, like all the other variables with which the photographer works,
is totally secondary to content, meaning and expression.
By these criteria, Galen Rowell was not a "great" photographer, and will
not be remembered as such by photographic history.
Sorry, I think you're wrong about this...
-Stephen Scharf
--
2001 CBR600F4i - Fantastic!
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|