Really, truthfully, I think a lot of you are in love with the story you make up in your heads, instead of the image itself. You're not really admiring the image as much as what you think it means.
Shel did this type of thing over and over. A crappy snapshot of a homeless person on the street may well be a tear-jerker for some, but it doesn't mean it's a good image or that it displays an artful skill. Because one makes up some 'profound' meaning for a still image one declares it to be a good photograph, whilst one walks by thousands of similar equally 'good' images every single day and dismisses them without even actually seeing them. I do like abstract art. I have attempted and succeeded I think with a number of abstract images. What I'm not a fan of us is putting lipstick on a sow and then giving it a kiss. :-) I find the genre at large to be a bit of a sham, charlatan, a fraud. Very little effort taking a picture of something very ordinary and rely on your audience to do all the mental work, and then pronounce it as good because of what went on in their head, not because of empirical qualities of the image. Sort of a 'lazy man's photography'. Actually, that's a little harsh but it's what I perceive occurring often. As far as this image goes, it does nothing for me. I see two small fallen leaves on a dirty sidewalk amongst bicycle tire tracks. Maybe if there were more leaves or if they were brighter colors... To be fair, I have seen shots Godfrey has taken that I really enjoyed even if not my favorite genre. Tom C. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 3:08 PM > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: RE: PESO 2007 - 46b - GDG > > > I guess my distaste for the genre is, that for all appearances, it does > > not > > rely on the eye or skill of the photographer or the quality of the image > > necessarily to be successful. And that bothers me because someone could > > put > > ten of these in mattes and frames and show them to acclaim, when a ten year > > old with a camera snapping at random could come up with something quite > > similar. I certainly can, walking down any old street, in any city, USA, > > zip > > code goes here. > > I think you are missing something. In my opinion (as a person with an art > degree), Godfrey's photo is an example of Photography as Fine Art. I can > assume from your comments that you are not a fan of abstract art, which is how > I see Godfrey's work from this particular series. > > You see a photo and want it to tell you a story, but it does not have to. > There are no rules in art. This means that, yes, a child could take similar > photos, hang them and call them art. > > However, if you take a closer look at Godfrey's series, I think you will see a > lot more skill involved than you think. Composition is a huge part of his > photos, and it's almost always very good (I realize "good" is subjective, but > I'm writing from work and don't have enough time to be less so). A child is > not going to know how to take abstract photos of everyday objects and make the > composition visually appealing, or notice colors or forms that contrast or > compliment each other and capture them in a similarly appealing way. Skill is > as much involved in photographing abstract shapes as it is in painting a > portrait or taking a landscape photograph. > > The child could call their photos art and they would be, but it takes skill to > make that art look good to more than just their parents. > > > John Celio > (I would love to cite particular artists work, but don't remember enough from > my university naps, er, art history classes) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the > directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
