What I was asking about, and commenting upon, is that I find it strange that ~you~ wouldn't know why you liked your own work.
Every time you edit your photos you're critiquing your work. When you shoot a roll of 36 and decide to print but one or two, you've made an editorial decision, decided which is acceptable and which is not. I would think that if you understood why you liked a photo, what made it work for you, it might be helpful. I'm just trying to have a conversation with you frank, open a little dialogue. Sounds like I've offended or annoyed you in some way. Shel > [Original Message] > From: frank theriault > > On 9/18/05, Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yeah, I think it does. It implies that you had some clear intention in the > > creation of the work, and that the result met your expectations. Of > > course, sometimes there's the fortuitous accident, but overall, to me at > > least, knowing why you like your own work indicates an understanding of > > what you've done, and the ability to perhaps honestly critique it. > > > > But, what difference does it make to you, as a viewer, knowing what > the intention of an artist might have been when a work was created? > > If I go to an art gallery, it matters not a whit what was going > through the artist's mind during the conception and creation of > his/her work. There it is, up on a wall, and I look at it. I like > it, or I don't. I may "get into it", and stare for hours. I may > wonder what the artist was "trying to say", but I get that from the > work, not from the artist. What I "get" may be far different than > what (if anything) the artist was trying to say, but that doesn't > invalidate the work or the artist. > > Again, not to beat a dead horse (but you keep bringing these things > up), I don't think that it's up to an artist to critique his/her own > work - that's for critics. An artist creates art (or in my case, "a > photographer creates photographs"). If I could explain why I liked > some of my photos, I'd probably be a writer, not a photographer. Or a > critic. > > cheers, > frank > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
