Thread by @bukusarkar

I wrote a long thread on D'Agata only to delete it and try again:
I'm really disappointed to hear about his sexual image with children. I wasn't a big fan but I respected him, a lot more than the other Magnum photographers. 1/x

The only photography workshop I ever took was with him, last year. In a matter of a few minutes, he completely deconstructed everything I thought I knew about my work. I left with less than I went into the class and then again, with so much more. 2/x

I'm, as I said, not a huge fan these days of his drug fueled, immersive work. I prefer the immersive work of the likes of Goldin, much more than his.
And I got to thinking about nudes, and the cliches of nudes and the differences between male and female artists portraying 2/x

nudes. I can hardly think of any nude works done by men that I like.
In fiction, which is my first occupation, I can give you an example of Jhumpa Lahiri. Her first book, Interpreter of Maladies, which won a Pulitzer was about immigrant Indians in Massachusetts. I didn't 3/x

like the collection. I felt it did little to move out of the 'immigrant experience' mould. The stories felt like stereotypes of everything I never wanted to do in my writing.
Then she wrote her second collection- Unaccustomed Earth- which was also about immigrant Indians. 4/x

But it was also about so much more. Whereas the first collection would never have worked outside its social context, in the second collection, every story would have still carried its depth and emotions had they been written about Norwegians. 5/x

That is when a story is successful- when it works in a larger context and in a more intimate context. A going in and going out.
D'Agata's work seems to be stuck in its context of desire, flesh and addiction. One time, it can be alluring, but over and over again, you want to 5/x

see something else revealed. Something new. I think the word I'm looking for is 'complexity.'

All this said, I am still sad to hear about D'Agata's work including naked children in sexual positions. If it is true, it is a shame. I held him to a higher esteem than the other 6/x

Magnummers. He made you think deeply about yourself and your work. It is just tragic then that he never has room left to think about his subjects.

Actually, it doesn't take much thought for this: How can any rational person take images of children in explicitly sexual 7/x

contexts and display them in public? How much drugs could have made someone do that?

And the most important question of all- which I've asked myself over and over again after seeing the horrors in this world of image makers- Who are you first? A human or a photographer?

If you saw someone drowning in a pool and no one else was there, would you rush to take out your camera or rush to help the person?

It sounds like an awfully simple thing to say, but how hard is it to just be human?