Comments on Tru Shots Photography Blog: Cameras, Conversation, Culture and Censorship

Megan...your comment is brilliant. Thank you for s...

2012-01-19T13:29:46.857-05:00

Megan...your comment is brilliant. Thank you for sharing. For the most part, there is no real threat to people who base a community on a specific profession unless the profession itself is near extinction. Photography is not. I do think some people try to pretend it is, to thus create the "need" for this communinty. So I think there is genuine validity to the first part of your comment. It is unfortunate that such a community mimics corporate America or any other society that creates hierarchy on various demographics and social classes, not even on ability or experience (not that the latter hierarchy would work either). Thanks so much for reading and sharing.

Josh...I don't think that photography has depleted our understading of the world. I do think that some photographers seek to do that both on purpose and by haphazzard circumstance. However, I don't think their message of superficiality erases messages of substance that other photographers create. If anything, they are alienating other photographers who will still continue to photograph and write the truth. Like any other art form, there will be opposing forces. But the opposition itself doesn't dilute what is true...it just means that what is true has to work harder to exist. That though... is unfortunate. Don't let photographers themselves alienate you from the craft of photography itself or what power it can have.

I do see validity in your view though...it reminds me of something Susan Sontag wrote in her book On Photography...I shared it on this blog too. Go back a few posts and you'll see it.

Thank-you Trudy. I am increasingly alienated by ...

2012-01-16T09:02:48.942-05:00

Thank-you Trudy.

I am increasingly alienated by a photographic tradition that claims to represent the world 'as it really is', but in fact only shows things 'as they really look like'. If anything, photography has by-and-large depleted our understanding of the world. Mostly because photographic 'tradition' is led by people from the ruling class, ethnicity and eduction - and they would rather mask over poverty and inequality, or else make it beautiful.

The more informed and conscientious we are, the more we can try to claim back photography... and hopefully demonstrate how it can change things, change people's minds, and make the world better.

I'm really, really starting to wonder about th...

2012-01-15T17:11:09.332-05:00

I'm really, really starting to wonder about the concept of "community" and how genuine it can be (without an immediate and severe outside threat) or how lofty a purpose it can serve in the long run. It seems to be limited by the weaknesses of its most shallow member across time. Not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but reading this, I see the same issues that pop up in every other community I've been involved in and I just...wonder.

That was a great point regarding teaching men not to rape vs. teaching women to be careful. I brought this up a little while ago with a male authority figure (responsible for guiding boys), and he effectively ignored the concept, trying to morph my very direct objections about a joke he had made into my personal offense.

I believe that all of it amounts to people in general not wanting to take real, costly responsibility for anything around them.

Thanks for the feedback Scott. :)

2012-01-15T13:35:13.213-05:00

Thanks for the feedback Scott. :)

Trudy, I enjoyed your article and continue to fol...

2012-01-15T01:25:19.111-05:00

Trudy,

I enjoyed your article and continue to follow your blog on Google. Keep shooting, thinking and speaking about the things that are important to you and things others should find both informative and enlightening.

Scott

Thank you so much for the response. It always inte...

2012-01-14T17:35:17.324-05:00

Thank you so much for the response. It always interests me to know that other photographers truly see what's occurring as well. I appreciate you taking the time to read it--i know the post was long. ;)

Thanks for writing this. Other than perhaps Glen F...

2012-01-14T16:53:07.418-05:00

Thanks for writing this. Other than perhaps Glen Friedman and a few (mostly silent) others the world of photography has been painfully passive on allowing superficial practices to dominate. It's unfortunate as the only way to really over come such problems is to educate and not feed into it, not just in photography but as a member of society in general.