`` Tribe Apart''

In this week's New Yorker,

 

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/04/16/slideshow_070416_piraha

 

``In this issue, John Colapinto reports on his visit to the Pirahã tribe in the

rain forest of northwestern Brazil. Here is a portfolio of Martin Schoeller?s

images of the trip, along with one of Schoeller at work, taken by his assistant,

Markian Lozowchuk.''

 

Is the lack of focus supposed to imply the sense of haze of the jungle? In my

mind the photographs are a tad ordinary, but then again I've never been to the

Amazon...

I think the people in the photographs are extraordinary. The p00h0otographs are very

straightforward

What is a "poohootograph?" And where can I get one?

I thought some of the pictures were great--the children laughing, the woman under the shelter with the dog, for instance. In the paper version of the New Yorker I felt the two close-up portraits of the man and woman were entrancing. I didn't have the same reaction when looking at them on the computer, perhaps because they weren't juxtaposed to one another and that was part of their magic? Anyhow, the article is also very interesting.--emily

I find these photos really disappointing. They are tourist photos, they don't really seem to have anything to say, it's depressing. If anyone wants to look at incredible photographs of life in the rainforest, I highly recommend the work of Valdir Cruz and the book on the Yanomami by Claudia Andujar (also known as Claudia Andujar Love.) Both are Brazilian and show a very different relationship with the people in the photographs. For a historical look, try the Saudades do Brasil by Claude Levi-Strauss, a famous anthropologist who photographed while in Brazil.

 

I'm surprised at The New Yorker's publication of these, they usually choose excellent photography.

Schoeller is know as a studio photographer (the close up portraits). Why the times would hire him for this type of assignment ????? I guess you can take the boy out ofthe studio but not the studioi out of the boy.

Perhaps Martin Schoeller just needs to stay in his studio.

Maybe Martin needs to "join" the tribe.

Judging Schoeller's work from the on line slide show is unfair. The b&w images on paper in the magazine are very impressive.

<br>There is also an issue to consider of how one presents a documentary photo essay. The article in which the pictures were embedded is about linguistics and a hunting and gathering society that is very resistant to outside influences. One can deduce some of that just by looking at the photos, but there is no way by doing that to verify the validity of the visual impressions. I think that when you read the article, you can see that Schoeller has met the journalistic test of accurately portraying his subject. Other photographers have produced colorful presentations about other Amazon tribes, but comparing them to Schoeller's depiction of the Piraha' is like comparing Stockholm to Miami.<br>

Sorry to be late in commenting on this thread, but living in rural New Mexico I get the magazine a week or two later than most it seems.

<i>Other photographers have produced colorful presentations about other Amazon tribes</i><p>

 

Nothing I recommended fits this description, maybe you should check them out before commenting on "other photographers." In fact, the ones I point out are by people who are indigenous to the culture and geography and have much more depth and insight. It doesn't matter what they look like in the magazine, they are clearly the work of an outsider who doesn't look very deep, or maybe didn't have the opportunity to look very deep. Look at the work of people who have lived with something rather than invaded.

<i>It doesn't matter what they look like in the magazine...</i>

<br><br>

Yes, it does. That is the medium for which the pictures were intended, and they look quite different there.

<br><br>

<i>...they are clearly the work of an outsider who doesn't look very deep, or maybe didn't have the opportunity to look very deep.</i>

<br><br>

In other words, if Schoeller had spent five years with his subject rather than five weeks or five days he would have produced quite different pictures? Of course.

No matter what they look like in the magazine, the basic content is unchanged. It's a stereotyped look at jungle people. Take a look at the work of the photographers I recommended, then look at The New Yorker, which I do get, FWIW.

My remarks are not based on the discourse in this forum, but by actually having a look at Martin Schoeller's products from his studio. The difference between the images is a bit troubling. Either the link to the images discussed in this forum leads us to poorly produced likenesses or to a struggle going on with Martin Schoeller's ability to produce. I find his studio images quite nice, the ones here; not.