"Naive
or commercial or merely utilitarian photography is no different
in kind from photography as practiced by the most gifted professionals:
there are pictures taken by anonymous amateurs which are just
as interesting, as complex formally, as representative of photography's
characteristic powers as a Stieglitz or a Walker Evans." Susan
Sontag ON PHOTOGRAPHY 1977 What in the world would Susan
have made of Flickr?
I understand that the Canadian fisheries is in trouble and that many fishermen are unable to support their families. Also there is a belief that seals have contributed to the crash of fish populations. But I believe this way of solving the problem is .... horrible!
One of the problems is also the market. Are seal skin coats becoming popular again? If you have any friends who are thinking of buying one (?????) please ask them to think about where it came from.
I was on a whale watch boat in the 1970's before the marine mammal protection act was in place. It was spring and quite cold. A very friendly and enthusiastic woman was wearing the warmest thing there was in those days... a seal skin coat and couldn't understand why no one would talk to her.