On 2013-04-09 17:14, Lea Murphy wrote:
I could not / would not photograph porn though I have done some nudes and enjoyed it. I'm not good at it, but I found the challenge interesting.
Porn is in the eye of the beholder. I don't have any interest in photographing actual intercourse, but I've shot some BDSM stuff occasionally. I'm not very good at nudes either, but have no objection to doing them, and have.
I could not photograph looking straight down from a high place…over a bridge, off a high wall or building. I am not afraid of heights but something happens in my body when I'm up quite high and look straight down. Don't like it one bit.
I don't trust my arms to hold me as much as I used to. In college I did some cinematography at the top of the water tower (we may be the only group of students to ever be up there *with permission*), and later I shot from the top of a friend's 90-foot radio tower. But these days I'm not so interested in that kind of climb (I'm a lot older, and somewhat heavier too). I've also shot from a glider and a light plane.
I've photographed several dead people, that is not a problem for me. I doubt I could do a murder scene though.
I haven't, but it was for fear of reactions of others rather than for my own reasons. I'd do forensic photography happily enough.
Last week I was with a friend who was dying of cancer. I so badly wanted to photograph her as she lay still in her bed but I was afraid to ask her partner's permission for fear she would think me overly invasive. I regret it but I can live with the decision. My friend died two days later.
I nearly always wimp out of those situations; but again it's not my being unwilling to do the photos, it's my being unwilling to deal with the other people involved. Seems to me Richard Avedon took that pretty far and published it, which seemed fine to me.
I do not recall regretting taking pictures; those simply disappear into the collection and I don't care. I sometimes regret not taking pictures. However, if I took pictures that got me enough outrage from others, I might then regret it.
-- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/ Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/ Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/ Dragaera: http://dragaera.info
