Salgado SLR use

[nesrani]

Sorry Ray - names are my weak point, I'm afraid. Salgado is popular, sure, but I don't see how that argues against my point. His popularity itself is a sign that he's easy to digest. As I said before, he'll never surprise or challenge his audience.

[raymond_tai]

Rob, I did not mean to challenge your point of view so sorry if it came out that way. I am not sure if there is a right or wrong way of approaching a subject matter. I find his books repetitive and perhaps too harshly stated in a previous post that they were boring. The individual images are certainly not boring but too much of the same thing book after book tend to get that way. However...his work is better than most and his popularity is certainly a plus for the causes he supports. On whether he should stay in one place and cover a particular issue in depth or whether he should survey issues globally I don't have a stong opinion. Perhaps Salgado did do just that and out of 10,000 rolls from 12 countries his editor chose 50 shots. I would ask him that question if I see him.

[pierre_claquin]

I can see that opinions are flaring high but it is what makes exchanges exciting. A few small clarifications:

a) yes, Salgado still uses his Leica R6.2. That was true at least a few months ago in Calcutta (India) while working with/for WHO on the polio assignment. I had (bad) digital pictures to prove it. Not taken by me :-)

b) It is not the first time Salgado works for "a cause". He worked many years for Medecins sans frontieres (the French Doctors)and he has left nothing but friendship and respect among them.

c) I am biased like each of us. I like his pictures because of their emotions. I am biased because I have spent the last 30 years working in health development in remote places. I have seen myself the two places of Bangladesh he shot for "Workers". The Adamjee Jute Mills closed down one month ago and all workers have been laid off. I found the captions of the pictures weak and wanting. But I understand that people can find his style froozen and the misery and crass of the poor people booring eventually. I look at Salgado's work as a testimony. No more, no less.

I hope I stayed away from being a pompous bleeding heart. Excuse my French :-) I am a public health physician (polio eradication in Bangladesh) and a photographer.

Pierre