At first i thought i was joking but now i really think i am going to pursue this whole war photography groupie thing. it's a niche group and there probably won't be too much competition. kidding aside.....
they may not be a fun bunch though, those men who are clicking away at horrifying images in dangerous, distant lands. Or maybe they are Hunter S. Thompson-like? Euphorically, deeply, almost irrationally living every moment with unfathomable gusto and hedonism (b/c they don't believe they will be alive much longer, or are surprised they still are)?
i suppose they'd have a lot to say and not say.
i'm going to a war photography lecture this week and i will report back.
if it all goes according to plan i will be describing geographic regions. or camera lenses. whichever i pay more attention to.
most likely i will not meet any of these photographers. I'll just realize my day job does nothing to awaken and prove the injustices of humanity and i will stumble into a bar before going home to listen to classical music.
the other extreme would be that i become obsessed with war photography, take a photography class desperately fail and then hate it with a passion.
the questions i'd like to ask a war photographer are:
they may not be a fun bunch though, those men who are clicking away at horrifying images in dangerous, distant lands. Or maybe they are Hunter S. Thompson-like? Euphorically, deeply, almost irrationally living every moment with unfathomable gusto and hedonism (b/c they don't believe they will be alive much longer, or are surprised they still are)?
i suppose they'd have a lot to say and not say.
i'm going to a war photography lecture this week and i will report back.
if it all goes according to plan i will be describing geographic regions. or camera lenses. whichever i pay more attention to.
most likely i will not meet any of these photographers. I'll just realize my day job does nothing to awaken and prove the injustices of humanity and i will stumble into a bar before going home to listen to classical music.
the other extreme would be that i become obsessed with war photography, take a photography class desperately fail and then hate it with a passion.
the questions i'd like to ask a war photographer are:
- Why do you choose to put yourself in dangerous places, for what purpose? What is the driving force for your work? One could be safe taking "calendar pictures of Tuscany" yet you insert yourself into danger voluntarily.
- What is the message you want your photos to deliver to an indifferent American public?
- Why didn't you become a soldier?
- How do you earn the respect of the soldiers you're near?
- Do you have survivor's guilt?
- What does it feel like to stare death in the face (specifically, from behind the camera lens)?
- How does your work not make you lose faith in humanity?
- When you take pictures are you disconnected from what is going on, purely observer? How do you not panic and freak out when there are bombs and bullets and bodies flying all around you?
These are some of the questions I'd like to ask but I'll never know. We shall see.
Also i think this is an automatic groupie fail b/c I'm just too GD happy all the time to be tolerable to these men. I'm sure of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment