the debate in my head
I must have started two dozen posts about this picture. Why? It sure isn’t because it’s a good picture. It’s not. It’s predictable – it’s distant and cold. It’s the 2007 version of the same photograph that we probably take every few years from the same spot. It depresses me that i made this photo. It depresses me that some force, some lack of will or talent or vision prohibited me from making it better. It depresses me that as i made it i knew it was the only picture that mattered and the one everyone wanted to see.
Rob, you sound tired and exhausted and that’s never a good time for having a debate. Making this photograph because it needs to be made and people want to see it shouldn’t be depressing. It’s a job and as much as you want to go beyond the expected, it’s hard for me to imagine how you can do that if you’re ‘reporting’ what happens on the ground. It strikes me that we will see the same pictures of floods in 2007 as we will in 2008 and beyond. I hope you have a better day today.
Sean Cayton
9 Dec 07 at 9:15 am