On Apr 14, 2009, at 12:36 AM, Bob W wrote:
I infer from the quote that an honest and thorough critique is
necessarily
negative, but I think (and Godfrey please correct me if I'm wrong)
that the
point was that a critique of a picture you like can be honest and
thorough -
it doesn't have to be about how you would have taken a much better
picture,
as someone here once put it.
Forgive my slow response to this thread ... I've been very occupied
the past couple of days and have not kept up with email.
My post to Flickr:
There's nothing wrong with writing a critique of a photo in which
you don't see any flaws. Critique isn't always about pointing out
flaws or making suggestions for improvement ... it is just as much
about expressing an appreciation of the photograph, it's subject or
emotional impact on you as a viewer, as it is about constructive
criticism.
How a photograph makes you feel, reminds you of things you've seen
or suggests things you would like to experience, is every bit as
important to me as a photographer reading a critique of my work as
whether or not you see a flaw that I might have missed. I think this
aspect of critique is often terribly underrepresented in the
critiques I read in this group.
My point is that a critique does not necessarily have to deal with
correction of flaws and constructive criticism. It can be just as
honest and thorough by the viewer expanding upon what affects him/her
about a photo they like, don't see any need to provide a fix or
alteration to. An honest and thorough critique of this sort can
provide useful input as to how to expand a particular body of work in
order to enhance the 'message' or viewer experience.
For instance, the next picture I posted ... 052-candy ... has been
very interesting. I have received about 40 responses to it. The
viewers on this and the other venues I posted it as a B&W - Color pair
to concentrated primarily on technical aspects of the rendering ...
whether they liked the B&W vs the Color rendering, a couple of details
regarding tonal qualities, conventions of images of kids and Easter,
etc. Only a few people touched on how they reacted to the photo in
terms of its emotional content. I also posted it in the B&W or Color
rendering only to a couple of venues ... there the responses were a
bit more in the domain of emotional reaction (and I was a little
surprised to read that many looking at the B&W rendering found
something sinister in it!).
I'll read through the rest of this thread a little later on ... it's
locally cached on my other computer. But thank you all for the
participation and thoughts.
Godfrey
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