Posted at 10:21h
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Dick's Rant
by Uncle Dick
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Photographers have photographer friends. It's only natural - like interests and all. This can mean that the bond is shared knowledge or work, and sometimes a business connection. There can also be model friends or collaborator friends - though the latter is an awkward phrase.
They also have rivals. These can be simple business competitors, club mates, or workers in the same artistic or academic field. The fiercest struggle is in the club. Murder, weak coffee, and cheap biscuits are the constant features of camera club life.
The wise photographer seeks to find a special place for themselves that is free from these sorts of interferences - a secure niche in the structure of the art - or of the trade, for that matter. Something that allows them to be seen and, if possible, praised and rewarded independently of the activities of others. There have been many such in the past.
HC-B was the pre-eminent street photo journalist - Atget the loner taking record shots of shopfronts. Both could have been in the same Paris street at the same time yet neither would...