Hi! When Cotty is not kidding and/or joking he appears to be quite wise <g>...
My comments interspersed. C> I think that there is plenty of room for criticism in art, and Marnie is C> right that any photograph can be criticised. However, it is whether or C> not the criticism is heard, or even desired that is the question. Plenty C> want it, plenty don't. I think you're the first among people I know who does not seem to want it. C> If I present a picture ... It means that I am happy with it. If I'm C> not, you don't see it. Yes of course, unless you are like me in some cases have some kind of unresolved question which you don't seem to manage to solve on your own. Then you might want to turn to others in order to try to spot in their words those words that are key and that are missing. C> There are those of us who consider ourselves students, and rightly are C> learning by trial and error - but what are they learning? If there is no C> right and no wrong, how can they learn anything? I believe the answer is C> that they are learning to come to terms with their own desires, their own C> perceptions, their own limits. Ultimately, personal satisfaction and C> contentment with a creation is the goal. How could it possibly be C> anything else? I think you're right. But, photography is IMHO done mainly in order to show one's photographs to others. Even if it is not meant like request for critique but rather like "look on this scene I saw ten days ago, isn't it lovely/funny/strange/whatever?" Obviously when one is showing their stuff, critique would be born. Very often, at least in my case, I tend to miss things that could be seen on my shots. So unless I listen to others, I wouldn't see it, at least immediately. I think that learning/teaching photography is ultimately about allowing the student to experience more of the spectrum of the experiences one may have doing photography. And the more experiences one gets to live through, the better they would be as a photographers, hopefully. C> You can teach and therefore learn the mechanics of photography, but you C> cannot teach and therefore cannot learn how to make a photograph. It is C> an intuitive thing. Students beg to please others with their work. The C> rest beg to please themselves. The transition is invisible - despite the C> protestations of those who claim to be continuously learning. I suppose you are a little wrong here. I think that mere asking a student to shoot different subjects, giving a student assignments, and helping the student to examine the photographs that he or she would come back with, can already be very beneficial. It is not like "in order to shoot A and B you have to put your lights there, your camera there and depress the shutter when A blinks and B yawns". It is more like "you wanted to have this emotion prominent, let's see how you see it, how you're sure that this emotion is indeed shown"... Makes sense? C> If you are learning, and asking for critique is desirable to you, then it C> should continue. And it does. If you are content with your pictures and C> simply present them for viewing by others, equally well and good - but if C> you read the critiques, you're only kidding yourself! I would say that I would be reading critiques just in order to learn how my perception differs from that of other people. Which in itself a wonderful experience. And of course I shouldn't accept all the critique, should I? Please notice that I never studied photography formally. C> All my opinion of course. C> With due respect, Likewise. Likewise. C> Cheers, Likewise <g>. C> Cotty No way! Boris!
