Hi, [...]
> Fine. Not everyone is into one of the types of > photography that that I enjoy. I appreciate that. > The funny thing is, though, that I can still > appreciate those other types of photography that maybe > I'm not so good at. In fact, maybe I appreciate them > more, because I can't do them. I don't go around > trashing people because they take photos that I can't. I think it is utterly shameful and a disgrace that somebody chose to personalise things by picking on Frank and Shel's photographs. Frank and Shel have been major factors in stimulating a very broad range of different discussions on this list over the last few years. There are other people on the list who also receive unstinting praise, and never a word of criticism, for work in a different style than Frank and Shel's. These other people's work is stuff that I personally think is pedestrian at best, and boring at worst. But since it is not really my type of photography there is nothing at all for anyone to gain by me saying anything about it. This does not mean that there is some kind of peer group pressure not to criticise that stuff, it's just that people may choose not to. If somebody receives endless praise for their photos of furtwangling, but I think they're indistinguishable from the rather dismal amateur section of 'Furtwangler Monthly', and anyway all pictures of furtwangling are the same, this doesn't mean I'm too peer-pressured or scared to speak out against the pretentiousness of furtwangler photos, it just means I can't be bothered, or I realise that other people find furtwangling a subject of infinite fascination, so I let them be. If you don't like photojournalism, fine. If you don't like 'street photography', fine. If you don't like pictures of birds on twigs with catchlights, fine. If you don't like pictures of motor racing, fine. If you don't like pictures of caterpillars, fine. If you don't like pictures of Mono Lake, fine. If you don't like pictures of kittens, fine. If you don't like pictures of children, fine. If you don't like pictures of flowers, fine. If you don't like landscapes, fine. If you don't like pictures of ducks, fine. If you don't like furtwanglography, fine. But there's absolutely no need to personalise your dislike in the way that it's been personalised towards Shel and Frank. If you don't like their style of photography, fine. There are plenty of people here who don't like your style of photography either, but we live with it because it's a pluralistic world and we are here - or at least I thought we were - to share and enjoy the whole subject. -- Cheers, Bob
