Kangri Guard
The ordinary gestures of ordinary people in ordinary situations.
I soaked up Rory Stewart's The Places in Between in one sitting last night. The book was about his walk across Afghanistan in 2002 and it conjurred up images of Kashmir, of its soldiers and of its rugged yet beautiful mountains. His encounters with the militias reminded me of the machismo culture of soldiers in these rag tag armies; Trigger happy and plenty of ego, idle but always up for intimidation.The book also led me to Didier Lefevre and this brilliant photograph, which has a Munch like Scream/By the Deathbed expressionist feel about it.
"Most war photographers carry large digital cameras; Didier was using black-and-white film and two old Leicas. In a war zone most photographers prefer to use a zoom. Didier didn't have one. 'I am the zoom' he said."
~ Rory Stewart, The Places in Between
P.s. Many thanks to Wenyi for the book, and with it the gifts of imagination, aspirations and insights.
posted by Jammy at 11:23 pm
2 Comments:
I guess in some other life you might be a photojournalist.
I went to hear Eugene Richards discuss his works. He seems to be another guy who believes he is the zoom. But like he said, choosing to be a photojournalist means he was ready to be really poor at times.
This "zoom" philosophy probably originated from Robert Capa's quote, "if you're pictures aren't good, you're not close enough". I saw some of Eugene Richard's photos from The Fat Baby, all very thought provoking. I doubt I'll make a good photojournalist. I think I enjoy the travel more than the photo-taking. And lets not start on the "really poor at times" bit!
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