From: "frank theriault" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> First, let me say, that I'm really enjoying this discussion. It's making me
> think about many issues, and confront things that I wouln't normally
> confront.
[snipped]
> But, here's my point (again, there is one... <g>). I tend to take photos
> of able-bodied people. I don't take photos of obese people, out of fear
> that they'll be offended. Same thing with people in wheel chairs, or street
> people who are in very rough shape, or clearly intoxicated, or who are in
> some other way disabled or disadvantaged. But, since I take lots of photos
> of normally-abled folks, am I not discriminating against "non-beautiful"
> people? Not to take it to the extreme suggested by Marnie in an earlier
> post, but I often wonder if by ~not~ taking photos of such people, I'm
> actually discriminating against them in a certain way?
>
> Any thoughts on this dilemma?
I have been asking myself the same type of questions at times, and not only with
regards to taking pictures.
Yes, maybe you, and I, and a whole lot of us photographers in fact and in a way are
discriminating against certain people whom we decide not to shoot, because of personal
preferences.
("Everybody should have equal rights to get the same amount of pictures shot of
themselves!")
That's why I - when out on my artistic street photography sprees - mostly concentrate
on the pretty ladies, since I know that this particular segment of the population
usually are sadly neglected by my fellow street photography shooters...
Just for the record, as if anyone would care, my views on the original question is not
necessarily as firm as my arguments in the recent post to Marnie may have led people
to believe.
What I did react against though, were the notion that people around us just are, in
the way stones, buildings, trees and animals are.
No matter how little we as photographers appreciate it, pointing cameras at people, or
getting lenses pointed at ourselves is a social act or interaction (and therefor also
subject to questions of morality), with all the social or mental reactions that may
arise from it.
If we discuss these matters we should at the very least acknowledge the existence of
them and their validity, and take it from there.
(And then there were also some "holier-than-you" attitudes, which I can't stand.
Oh yes, I was out of cheese for my bread too. I hate that.)
Lasse
> >From: "Lasse Karlsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> <snip>Maybe so. May I ask you why you think this lady is interesting? Is it
> possibly just because she is abnormally fat?<snip>
