a slightly twisted question...perhaps?
i'm wondering if photographers like hcb or weston or smith would join a forum if they were available to them?
would they spend their time chatting with the likes of us or be more productive by being 'out there' shooting?
any thoughts?
It is impossible to know of course, but it is my understanding that at certain times in history, well-known photographers gathered together in various ways to socialize, share information, talk about new gear, new methods, support each other, fight duels, critique each other's work, and so on.
It wasn't just photographers. I have read a lot about the famous artists and writers who gathered in and around Paris and New York in the 1920s, for the same reasons.
At the amateur level, camera clubs and societies filled that role pretty admirably, with camera magazines and letters-to-the-editor for shut ins and people in small towns without a cadre of shutterbugs.
What might not have happened is that the
hoi polloi would not have rubbed shoulders with the famous and noted photographers. A person such as myself, for example, would not have been permitted to blow raspberries towards HCB, or even some of our more well-known members. Not that this stops me.
As a person who once ran a computer BBS in the early days of personal computers, long before this internet thing, I can say that people like to get together and chat. It seems to be a popular pastime. And birds of a feather flock together.
