Nope. They are still around, and some are very active.
I done presentations at several in California — Eastern Sierra, SoCal, SF Bay Area — and typical attendance is in the range of dozens to 100. For presentations by folks are are pretty big names I’ve seen hundreds or more show up.
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bmike-vt wrote:
Swiss German would like a word or two… but I feel your pain.
Having hung out with some Swiss folks speaking a German/Swiss dialect for a week earlier this year while walking though the Douro Valley hills, I think I understand. (We had a great time with these folks, who kindly engulfed our inability to speak their language.)
johnvanr wrote:
Have they disappeared? I’m a member of a club here in Austria, partly because they also offer studio space. It’s one of many in Vienna and they’re quite active. My problem is that I speak German, but hardly understand the Viennese dialect which they always use when the discussion gets animated.
It depends on where you live. In Northern Nevada, which doesn't have a very large population the clubs have largely disappeared following Covid. A number of annual photography events disappeared as well.
Then mix in the regional dialects : Valais, Bern, Züri, Basel… it’s like tribalism in photography. Everyone sort of understands each other…
I was walking to the Bahnhof after paragliding and a farmer offered me a lift. I spoke 2 words and understood maybe 10 words… he was animated and comical and wonderful. I just couldn’t understand his local dialect.
The good and bad part about Zürich is as an immigrant as soon as you struggle they switch to English. Great for the doctor. Horrible for everyday practice. I often just reply to their English in my bad Hochdeutsch, and we get through it.
johnvanr wrote:
Yeah, I’ve lived in Zurich too. Hopeless…
mudlake wrote:
My purpose for this thread is to be a place where we can all share things that have helped us be better photographers.
There are many brilliant photographers on FM who have built up a store of photography knowledge over a lifetime. It would be nice to have one place for all to go to get nuggets of wisdom on how to be better. My idea is that if you have something that has helped you be a better photographer you would share it here.
I’ll start. My favorite photography quote comes from the Great War photographer Robert Capa:
“If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
This advice is always in the front of my mind when photographing people. It’s the one piece of advice I give to people who ask me how to make their pictures better. I always say, “Get closer!” The vast majority of pictures I see online and from family and friends (of people) are shot wayyyyy too far away from the people. Yes, there are times when an environmental shot looks good with the people small in the frame, but in general, get closer.
Feel free to share your pithy nuggets of wisdom!
And here’s the great Robert Capa doing what he loved most:
...Show more →
There is some background information missing in this post, although maybe for the simple reason that this common knowledge.
Robert Capa was a persona "created" by two young immigrants in Paris: Andre Friedmann (from Hungary) and Gerda Pohorylie (from Germany), who became Robert Capa, "a famous American photographer" and Gerda Taro.
To understand the full significance and implications of "If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough" it is important to understand that they both worked as photographers reporting from the war zones, from the front lines. To be "close enough," they took the risks that made them both killed, first Gerda during the Spanish civil war (she was struck by a tank), and later Andre, at the end of the 2nd World war.
An interesting short documentary video has been recently produced by BBC on Gerda and Andre - the Robert Capa: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p096mdyf/the-world-famous-couple-that-changed-photography-forever
bmike-vt wrote:
Then mix in the regional dialects : Valais, Bern, Züri, Basel… it’s like tribalism in photography. Everyone sort of understands each other…
I was walking to the Bahnhof after paragliding and a farmer offered me a lift. I spoke 2 words and understood maybe 10 words… he was animated and comical and wonderful. I just couldn’t understand his local dialect.
The good and bad part about Zürich is as an immigrant as soon as you struggle they switch to English. Great for the doctor. Horrible for everyday practice. I often just reply to their English in my bad Hochdeutsch, and we get through it.
If it makes you feel any better, Scottish English (in its purest form) is essentially unintelligible (at least at first) to speakers of American English. I suspect that the opposite is equally true. :-)
(One fascinating thing though. After weeks of hearing the speech of Scots, I began to make more sense of it and could eventually even carry on a conversation, missing perhaps only 20% of what was said.)
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Also, about Capa, there’s a pretty informative wikipedia page.
