Magnum Photos website vs Steve Huff blog

[FrankS]

The emperor has no clothes. There, I said it.

 

[seakayaker1]

fstops: The opening tomorrow night. There are 35 prints in this exhibit.

Congratulations Bob!

Loved your photographs from Cuba on your website and would loved to see them in person. Perhaps the opportunity will arise at another time . . . . .

 

[emraphoto]

fstops: The opening tomorrow night. There are 35 prints in this exhibit.

congratulations Bob. wish i could come see it, sincerely.

 

[seakayaker1]

As far as Magum site vs Steve Huff, it is just not in the same ballbark. The two web sites are built for two different purposes. There are sites to view published works and there are others that review gear.

Perhaps, the comparision needs to be between Steve Huff and Erwin Putts, or Sean Reid, or Ken Rockwell. Along with the Magum site being compared with other photo agency web pages.

Enjoy viewing photograhs at a gallery/museum and also on the web.

 

[JayM]

It is very straight forward, when photographers meet they talk camera, for a change it would be better to see each others work...

Who better to show one's work than other photographers and people as well and the cops if it came to it.

The best outcome of this approach would be that everyone would strive for better pictures because they know they might be asked for it on the spot.



P.S. And if someone is shy then they picked up the wrong hobby/activity.

I like this. Hard to keep friendly competition truly friendly though.

 

[finguanzo]

I have a friend who's a chef, but we really dont speak of knives and pans when we get together... or even food for that matter....
😕

 

[Nigel Meaby]

"If you visit magnum photos website (www.magnumphotos.com) there is not a single response to any of the pictures or stories posted. If you visit Steve Huff blog (www.stevehuffphoto.com), which I'm using as an example, every post has more than fifty responses to it on an average.

To me this pretty much sums up today's photography, the photography gear itself is photography, photography as an art or medium of self-expression is pretty much dead."

"Showing your work on the internet is useless, show prints in real life face-to-face and then that is a measure of skill.

And that is what I'm asking for. Ask people for their work in real life situations.

Print is the final product."

Clearly you have answered your own question there. If showing your work online is "useless" then of course gear sites are going to be more popular, I mean why would people be looking at useless photographs and talking about them when they can be lusting over the Best Shiny New thing? 😀

And to clarify are you saying the photographs posted by Chris in this thread are "useless" in their online format? You can't gain anything from the content and composition of those photographs? :bang:

How is it practical for me here in the UK to show a Print to someone in Australia, for example? Shall I mail them one each time I print a photograph? If I'm only showing my work to the people I meet "in real life" my work is going to reach a pretty limited audience and the people I meet, theirs'. Are we comparing the level of skill involved in making a final print or the content and composition of a photograph when we meet?

 

[collum]

The computer monitor is not designed to show subtlety, most of them are designed for reading text and not everyone can afford or has a $1000 monitor. Even those who have the $1000 monitor will not notice anything 'subtle' in a 800x600 image because its too compressed.

but there *are* a lot of photographers reading this forum who do have a monitor that's color/contrast calibrated, is able to display high gamut images with no problem. Granted, you won't get the texture of the paper.. but you can still see quality. I use it to determine the quality of an image prior to it being printed... i don't print multiple test strips to see if they're 'good'

While I'm also of the school that the print is the final 'statement' (at least for my work)... The majority of the photographic world.. art, journalism, commercial, all make decisions about the 'quality' of an image based on what they see on a computer monitor.

Take a browse through the gallery section in RFF.. you can see plenty of 'quality' there (as you can from the Magnum site)


for those of us who *do* have the ability, do you happen to have any work online?

I haven't noticed a name with any of your posts... have always felt pretty odd talking to 'tags' (unless your name is, in fact, fstop, .. then i apologize).

jim

 

[charjohncarter]

To me this pretty much sums up today's photography, the photography gear itself is photography,

Yes, I received this today, and I thought the same thing.



http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Mica-923324-photos-du-temps-pass/

 

[kbg32]

I don't know anything about Huff, but some good work shows up on the "Burn" site. It's got to clear DAH before it's published.

http://www.burnmagazine.org/

I looked at Huff's site..

While I'm no fan of Albert Watson, I think one might learn more studying Watson's work rather than Huff's

http://www.albertwatson.net/

Burn is of an entirely different caliber.

 

[collum]

Chris,
thanks for posting this.. it's some of your most powerful, and moving work.

jim

Pictures of pets can be an important part of serious art or documentary work. Look at William Wegman's work. The man is famous for his photographs of dogs.

Over the years, I spent a lot of time photographing my grandfather. I made countless photographs of his dog and cats, because they were so important to him, and had such interesting lives themselves.

THe dog walked into the kitchen, looked around to be sure no one was watching (I guess I didn't count!), then jumped up and stole a piece of meat from the plate on the counter!

This one was made a few months before grandpa died from Alzheimer's Disease.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Nice Bob! And the images look good here on my "monitor" too.

Actually that image is a scan of the 16x32" poster from the Gallery. I had to scan the poster on my flatbed then stitch it together in Photoshop.

 

[Bob Michaels]

It is very straight forward, when photographers meet they talk camera, for a change it would be better to see each others work... ........................

My photo friends and I seldom even speak directly of photography, much less about cameras. We talk about people, life, cultures, philosophy; all those things we are trying to convey in our photos.

 

[steveniphoto]

i agree with a lot of what you say fstops but i think some of it is too extreme.. mostly the bit about online work.

 

[leicashot]

Can't believe people are still wasting time on this topic. - Maybe we should call this site dpreview2.

Personally, I think time is better spent going to either of these too great websites, one for gear and one for photography.

 

[Turtle]

Quite. When I meet up with photographers we do not talk gear. Those very rare, brief chats about kit have been entirely functional and about the bigger issues, not nuances.... like, "I've been looking at a Mamiya 7 to shoot big colour negs. I know you have one - how do you get on with it?"

With most photographer friends we have had zero kit conversations. Most know that I shoot film almost exclusively, but few have the faintest idea what cameras I shoot. A couple know I prefer RFs but that's about as detailed as it gets.

We talk photographs, exhibitions, networking, philosophy, motivation. It tends to be about passion, and business. It tends to be about support, sharing work and the end result is often an even greater drive to get out there and shoot more images, on whatever you like!

My photo friends and I seldom even speak directly of photography, much less about cameras. We talk about people, life, cultures, philosophy; all those things we are trying to convey in our photos.

 

[jsrockit]

I have a friend who's a chef, but we really dont speak of knives and pans when we get together... or even food for that matter....
😕

That's because he's your friend and you probably don't care about knives and pans.

 

[Turtle]

Knowing what kit you like to use us the absolute - lowest - baseline for going out and shooting productively. it is beyond this point that photography really happens. For those walking that path, it just does not matter and when two such people get together it is the journey they have in common. finding people to indulge in gear talk is easy. Just look online. Why waste precious time with a respected photographer talking focus shift? Would you talk pans with a master chef? I'd be aiming to talk food....

That's because he's your friend and you probably don't care about knives and pans.

 

[jsrockit]

Why waste precious time with a respected photographer talking focus shift? Would you talk pans with a master chef? I'd be aiming to talk food....

I'd probably just have some beers and talk about whatever came up. Not everyone wants their brain picked.

 

[fstops]

fstops: The opening tomorrow night. There are 35 prints in this exhibit.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Any photographer who puts their work out there in print deserves respect, even if its a blurb book. Filling up flicker servers with countless photos is easy, very easy, and unfortunately pointless, its like using an eye dropper to put water in the pacific.