Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => But is it Art? => Topic started by: pjtn on September 24, 2012, 02:38:48 am

Title: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: pjtn on September 24, 2012, 02:38:48 am
I have been researching, trying new things and thinking non stop about what I want in my photography.

At one time the work of Michael Levin (http://www.michaellevin.ca) was new to me and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. I had my heart set on creating my own body of work with a minimalist long exposure look. It suits my personality and my personal beliefs in living a simple life to reduce my footprint on the environment. It seemed perfect.

Then I began to discover this work was far from original. There are hundreds of photographers producing this work. It made me feel like I needed to look elsewhere.

My search has found many great photographers Mac Oller (http://macoller.com), Guy Sargent (http://www.guysargent.net) and Dan Holdsworth (http://danholdsworth.com) to name a few.

After talking with an art business marketing consultant he advised me that I should be working on projects which have their own concepts and meanings. This has been a source of frustration for me. It would seem that when concept is applied to images the image tends to become ugly, when the image is beautiful it tends to lack concept.

This isn't necesarily always true, for example Murray Fredericks Salt (http://www.murrayfredericks.com.au/projects/salt/) series has a great concept and is beautiful.

I no longer know what to consider art or what to consider original. Every idea I have had, after some searching, there is always someone else to have done it. I feel my ideas are either beautiful and shallow, or meaningful and ugly.

I'm at a point where I no longer know what to shoot or how to shoot it.

Do you get this same feeling towards your work? How do you work through it?
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: louoates on September 24, 2012, 04:11:47 am
Aside from selling your cameras I'd first recommend STOP READING and researching about what you should or shouldn't shoot. Just walk around with your camera and see what pops into your mind to shoot. Then process that image the way YOU think it should look. No fiddling or lots of fiddling in Photoshop. That's YOUR image that captured your imaginations, nobody else's. Just look at the resulting image and write one sentence about it that turns you on. End of analysis. The moment you try to compare that shot with a shot you may have seen in some book before, remind yourself that that photographer is long dead and you're not. If anybody else likes your shot so much the better. If someone wants to buy it, you're in the upper 1/2 of 1 % and go buy yourself a beer.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on September 24, 2012, 05:12:00 am
Aside from selling your cameras I'd first recommend STOP READING and researching about what you should or shouldn't shoot. Just walk around with your camera and see what pops into your mind to shoot. Then process that image the way YOU think it should look. No fiddling or lots of fiddling in Photoshop. That's YOUR image that captured your imaginations, nobody else's. Just look at the resulting image and write one sentence about it that turns you on. End of analysis. The moment you try to compare that shot with a shot you may have seen in some book before, remind yourself that that photographer is long dead and you're not. If anybody else likes your shot so much the better. If someone wants to buy it, you're in the upper 1/2 of 1 % and go buy yourself a beer.


Couldn't agree with you more: it's all about what the photographer himself feels. If he feels nothing, then he's better staying at home.

There's nothing left to do that hasn't been done to death. If you doubt that, look at the commercial end of photography where it closest touches the amateur possibilities: stock. There is nothing new to do after zillions upon zillions of everything have been framed, shot and processed. The best anyone can do is a feesh angle of an old theme. Everything is now cliché.

Rob C

Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on September 24, 2012, 09:46:53 am
I have been researching, trying new things and thinking non stop about what I want in my photography...

And that's the problem! Photography, like any other art, is about feeling.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: louoates on September 24, 2012, 10:16:56 am
And that's the problem! Photography, like any other art, is about feeling.

Absolutely! Which is why so much photography education is about the wrong things. At one time it was studying the "masters" from decades in the past and trying to apply "rules" from those eras into the present. Then the big distraction away from photographic creativity was putting all the chemistry together and arguing which developer was best. Later it was the mega-pixel competition and image longevity quest. These days it's ranting about the pros/cons of mobile devices and one-button image manipulation. Smart instructors will give out some basic 12 megapixel cameras and demand students go out and point it at stuff that's important to them. I remember some painting kits sold 50 years ago that had outlines of pictures with numbered areas that told you which color to paint into that area. I think lots of photographic theorists are closet photo-by-number practitioners.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 24, 2012, 11:09:04 am
For Heaven's sake, Rob, stop worrying about concepts and meanings. Stop worrying about what's art and what's not art. Stop worrying about beauty and ugliness. And, above all, stop worrying about originality. It's impossible to make an image that doesn't at least remotely echo something someone else has done before you, with a camera or with a brush. Lou's right, and so is Slobodan. Get your ass out there with a camera. Don't try to "construct" or "create" a picture. React! When you see something that strikes you, don't think. . . SHOOT! I know, it's very different from what you used to do in a studio, but try it, you might like it.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 24, 2012, 06:48:49 pm
I'm at a point where I no longer know what to shoot or how to shoot it.

Do you get this same feeling towards your work? How do you work through it?

Well, at the outset, let me say that you would not by any manner of means be the first, or the only, person to hit a creativity drought.  It happens to the experienced and capable just as it happens to the newbie.  From my perspective, it is about finding your own voice.  Finding that voice is more likely to be a solitary endeavour than a group effort.  By an large forums are the worst venue for achieving the outcome you require.  There is way too much dross and ego to wade through and any real value is lost from the start.  Then, on top of that, comes the dogma which sets things back to the neolithic period.

Only you know what you are looking for and only you can find it.  It might come in a lightning bolt or it might come as a gradual revelation.

Whether you construct images or simply collect what you stumble across is up to you.  My own endeavours seem to be a mix of the two.  You mention Murray Fredericks:  he is a mate of mine and I was there through the formulation period of Salt.  He had a basic idea of what he wanted to do.  To that end I sold him my 8x10 camera in preparation for his first trip coz he knew that he wanted to work BIG.  He set out with a good deal of traditional B&W experience and gallery sales to equip him psychologically for the pursuit of his idea, his spark of an idea.  But it was a very different man with a very different notion that returned from that first trip.  The experience in the field filled in all the gaps for Murray because he was venturing into a somewhat alien physical space which probably awoke him to formerly alien head space.

My recommendation to you would be similar to what I have given myself on occasion:  just get out and give it a go and see where it leads.  Look at YOUR results and determine what YOU would like to change.  Work quietly and alone and celebrate the failures for what they teach, just as every stumble and fall eventually taught you to walk.

I find a lot more value in looking at pictures on Flickr where you are essentially just presented with images without the intrusion of character, ego, clap-trap or a 'club mentality' than I could ever hope to see here on Lu-La.  There is dross on all sites but if you persist on Flickr you will be more likely to find some gems that will help you determine the path and the personal philosophy that, it seems, is eluding you at present.

Cheers,

W
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: pjtn on September 24, 2012, 07:54:14 pm
Thanks everyone and thank you particularly Walter.

I have spoken to Murray once and he said to give him a call anytime to talk about concepts. He's been in Greenland for sometime and I don't want to bother him too much so haven't called yet. He's a great man though for offering a helping hand to someone he doesn't even know.

Flickr is a good idea. A place with such a quantity of photos will be a perfect avenue to start pulling in ideas. This weekend I'm going to head down to the coast a try a few things. I have a faint spark in my head, maybe it will catch.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 24, 2012, 09:03:06 pm
It appears that Murray is passing on the grace that was shown to him not all that long ago.

Are you in Australia?  I am in Sydney if you ever feel like a chew and brew.

Cheers,

W
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: pjtn on September 24, 2012, 09:13:52 pm
I'm in the Barossa South Australia. It's probably part of the reason Murray's work fascinates me so much. Lake Eyre is only about 10 hours north from here. I've been to Lake Torrens which is similar, some great fun driving out on the stations.

South Australia doesn't strike me as the most photogenic state. We just have hours upon hours of driving through baron nothingness, usually with some shrubs struggling to survive lining the roads. Where I'm located though it's mostly dense scrub.

I think it takes a very different perspective to create a body of work here.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Steve Weldon on September 24, 2012, 09:19:05 pm

Do you get this same feeling towards your work? How do you work through it?

I find Instagram refreshing.  Another bowl of soup, another picture..  give it a try.      :D
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on September 25, 2012, 04:26:37 am
For Heaven's sake, Rob, stop worrying about concepts and meanings. Stop worrying about what's art and what's not art. Stop worrying about beauty and ugliness. And, above all, stop worrying about originality. It's impossible to make an image that doesn't at least remotely echo something someone else has done before you, with a camera or with a brush. Lou's right, and so is Slobodan. Get your ass out there with a camera. Don't try to "construct" or "create" a picture. React! When you see something that strikes you, don't think. . . SHOOT! I know, it's very different from what you used to do in a studio, but try it, you might like it.



Russ, I can only offer the OP the understanding that I have of photography - not the views of another person.

I have worked more or less equally between studio and exterior and, by far, I prefer the great outdoors.

As far as my own shooting goes, I hardly use the dslrs anymore because what I shoot has no intended life beyond about 600 pixels at max. on the web. I don’t want to burden myself with weights for nothing – were something ‘real’ to come my way, of course, that would be different, but for what I do, what I use does.

Advising someone younger than myself (I hope I am!) to follow his own star is what I’ve always recommended here in LuLa, as a check will confirm. In my opinion, there’s no other way to live with photography: you can’t be anyone else, so you may as well be yourself.

Angst about meaning etc. is real, and it’s what’s in my makeup. I can’t be otherwise. Those silly little cellpix things I make only happen because of one of three reasons: a caption is in my head looking for a visual expression of itself; the visual is there in front of me and inspires an instant verbal reaction; something simply amuses me or makes me giggle for whatever reason. Which, as far as I can see, is pretty much what you are suggesting. As for going out with a preconception deeper than caption, forget it: even in my fashion/calendar days we just got into the car and had faith that Dame Fortune would deliver, and she mostly did. I read recently a photographer’s credo about the making of pictures; it might have come from Duffy, but I’m not sure. Anyway, the gist of it was this: there’s nothing to do in photography: it just happens.

I’m 100% in agreement with what Walter has to say on the matter; I think we both share the view that technique can be learned but the message comes from within or not at all. In fact, I know that’s also your opinion, so none of us is far distant from the others on that score.

But this post is in danger of turning circular, so I’ll get off the inquisitional typist’s chair, stretch some circulation back into the legs, lie down with my head back and waste the next fifteen minutes putting drops into my eyes.

And you hoped for inspiration?

;-)

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: stamper on September 25, 2012, 04:52:05 am
In all honestly you can only shoot what you see in front of you? You can't - unless you stage it - invent an image. There is a member on here - who I won't name - a while back who stated he sometimes sketched ideas onto paper and created shapes, He then went out looking for images that resembled what he sketched. I have scratched my head over this and I have made up my mind it is BS. I too have wondered about what next to do and it can consume you. The advice given in previous threads is go out and keep looking and it is good advice. Now.....where can I look? :)
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 25, 2012, 08:46:29 am
Hi pjtn,

Just watched SALT again tonight on Artscape on the ABC.  I guess it will be available on iView for a week or so.

It always tugs at my heart strings a tad to see my Toyo 810M out there.  I have been trying to get another.   I have Sinar 10x8 but it just isn't as convenient.

Muzza now uses MF digital but for me a lot of the qualities that you are speaking of in your initial post happen for me with the roadside television of the 8x10 ground glass.

Cheers,

W
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: pjtn on September 25, 2012, 09:27:44 am
It's a great doco. I've loved documentaries ever since I was little, always wanted to make them myself (not sure where that dream went though). I bought SALT on DVD but must remember to get it back from a friend.

Really looking forward to his Greenland documentary too which I think comes out next year. There really is no stopping him, one great thing after another.

The Toyo looks like a beautiful camera, they have them at Vanbar (http://www.vanbar.com.au/catalogue/product.php?id=60857) for quite a hefty sum.

The Alpa Murray has looks great too. I have a Phase One P30+ on Hasselblad H1. One day if I can afford it I would love to get an Alpa to mount the P30+ on. Still it's not going to have the look a large 8x10 sheet of film has.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Richowens on September 25, 2012, 11:16:23 am
pj,

 Every time I get into internal arguments with myself about what to shoot and how to shoot, I think of this.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHR7_VZdRw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHR7_VZdRw)

 Tends to put things back into perspective.

Best luck with your quest.

Rich
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Ellis Vener on September 25, 2012, 03:26:49 pm
Every idea I have had, after some searching, there is always someone else to have done it.

that doesn't matter. None of those people are you. Pay attention to your response rather than the stylings of other people. You just have to keep working. One day you'll look back and see how far you have come.
 BTW Levin's work instantly reminded me of Hiroshi Sugimoto (http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/portfolio.html) and Michael Kenna (http://www.michaelkenna.net/)

Both Kenna and Sugimoto have been working in or towards this vein since the mid 1970s.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 25, 2012, 05:26:26 pm
BTW Levin's work instantly reminded me of Hiroshi Sugimoto (http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/portfolio.html) and Michael Kenna (http://www.michaelkenna.net/)

Both Kenna and Sugimoto have been working in or towards this vein since the mid 1970s.

Well spotted Ellis,

And I know how much of an influence both Kenna and Sugimoto have been on Murray Fredericks early formation.  It was Kenna's work that initially motivated him to give photography a serious go back at the dawn of his time.

I have never been overly put off trying something simply because someone else did it.  We each bring something of our own to what we do.

Cheers,

W

Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on September 25, 2012, 05:34:55 pm
I'm at a point where I no longer know what to shoot or how to shoot it.

Do you get this same feeling towards your work? How do you work through it?

Everyone gets stuck sometimes, in photography and every other creative activity. "Writer's block" has been much written about. As rightly suggested in a number of posts, it isn't usually productive to try to think your way out of it. I reckon mostly you just have to wait, before very long you will find yourself unstuck again. Play may also be helpful, if you can come at it.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: nemo295 on September 26, 2012, 10:32:28 am
If you need to ask someone else what you should or shouldn't be shooting you're not an artist, you're a hack. Just go out and shoot whatever you find interesting, and shoot every chance you get. Don't think about what others would do--please yourself. The rest will take care of itself in time.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Fips on September 26, 2012, 02:29:04 pm
Here's my 2 cents: Photographers tend to be focused too much on photography. Look at all kinds of visual art and figure out what inspires you. Many great artists we call 'photographers' wouldn't use that term to describe themselves. Take the Bechers and Gursky as an example.

EDIT: typo
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 26, 2012, 03:31:35 pm
Yes, and Gursky would be right. He'd also be right if he didn't call himself an artist.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on September 26, 2012, 05:39:38 pm
Yes, and Gursky would be right. He'd also be right if he didn't call himself an artist.

Mmmm. I rather like, for example, this (http://trendland.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/andreas-gursky-3.jpg). It is pleasing at first glance, and it draws me in and keeps my attention for longer than most photographs. I think there is talent there, even if over-sauced with art-world performance.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 26, 2012, 05:48:01 pm
I agree, Ken. That's a cute one. Problem is, the guy takes himself so seriously that. . . well. . .
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 26, 2012, 06:03:35 pm
Problem is, the guy takes himself so seriously that. . . well. . .

Goodness me, if ever there was a touch of the pot calling the kettle black — well, as I see it anyway.

The expression that i often see in Artist Statements, Letterheads and promo material is "artist working in the medium of photography"

Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 26, 2012, 06:13:18 pm
Easy, Walter. It's clear you weren't here for the Dale Thorn saga.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Fips on September 26, 2012, 06:17:38 pm
I agree, Ken. That's a cute one. Problem is, the guy takes himself so seriously that. . . well. . .

From all I've watched and read, I never had that impression.
But let's not start a debate about him here. My point was that too many photographers never think outside the box - which is their camera.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 26, 2012, 07:00:55 pm
Easy, Walter. It's clear you weren't here for the Dale Thorn saga.

Please enlighten me.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: pjtn on September 26, 2012, 07:47:49 pm
Fips I have to agree on that, and I know I suffer from looking too closely at only photography. My sister has a degree in art and I've been trying to learn about what she does and the people she admires.

Right now there is a stack of her University notes and books on my desk, if I study them hard enough it might be like having a poor mans art degree..
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on September 26, 2012, 08:06:49 pm
Problem is, the guy takes himself so seriously that. . . well. . .

What I have come to think recently is that there is no correlation - negative or positive - between the bullshit and the talent. All of the combinations occur with about equal frequency (no bullshit/talent, bullshit/talent, no talent/no bullshit and bullshit/no talent). I used to think number two a contradiction in terms (which could be read as the implication of the line I have quoted from your post), but I am not so sure of that now. A variation on the notion that there is no correlation - negative or positive - between artistic ability and moral virtue. Enough. I could go on at length, but will spare you.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on September 26, 2012, 08:26:43 pm
... Enough. I could go on at length, but will spare you.

Thank you!  ;D
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on September 26, 2012, 08:52:24 pm
All of the combinations occur with about equal frequency (no bullshit/talent, bullshit/talent, no talent/no bullshit and bullshit/no talent).

I agree wholeheartedly Ken, but I feel there is also a whole other balance based on the arena where the weight would swing in favour of the last option.

Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 26, 2012, 09:04:11 pm
Please enlighten me.

I'll let Rob do that.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 26, 2012, 09:05:18 pm
Thank you!  ;D

+1
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on September 26, 2012, 09:31:58 pm
+1
You are very welcome, guys. I do try to set an example to the senior members.  
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: graeme on September 29, 2012, 06:25:14 am
Here's my 2 cents: Photographers tend to be focused too much on photography. Look at all kinds of visual art and figure out what inspires you.

+1

And the pixel peeping and emphasis on 'image quality' can probably be negative too. In most other forms of art or design I've been involved in ( drawing, stained glass design / restoration, digital art ) it's been really helpful to stand well back from the piece, squint and half close my eyes. An over emphasis on detail isn't going to help your composition and may cause you to miss some serious aesthetic shortcomings in your work. Been there done that.

Graeme

PS There have been some great links on this thread and I think it's been a discussion worth having.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on September 29, 2012, 09:53:42 am
I'll let Rob do that.

Who was Dale Thorn? The only chap I recall getting the axe was the spiders shooter and martial arts aficionado from Florida, but I think his name was Jack. Actually, I don't think he had much wrong with him other than an unusually short fuse, which could be about the martial arts thing - rapid reactions training? I simply don't now.

I do miss Toke, though, and Dark Penguin had some great one-liners, but they simply seem to have pulled anchor and gone off into that deceptive sunset. Shame, really.

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: RSL on September 29, 2012, 11:08:34 am
Come on, Rob, you're not that old. You don't remember "dalethorn," the guy who was always telling people not to "drink the koolaid?" I remember when you cautioned me to go easy when I got on his case. He's one of only two people I've seen kicked off of LuLa by blowing his top with insulting comments.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on September 30, 2012, 04:44:10 am
Come on, Rob, you're not that old. You don't remember "dalethorn," the guy who was always telling people not to "drink the koolaid?" I remember when you cautioned me to go easy when I got on his case. He's one of only two people I've seen kicked off of LuLa by blowing his top with insulting comments.


Sorry for the delay - I tried to answer yesterday but since the 'phone company upgraded my system to a free router and additional Spanish tv channels some months ago - supposedly for less than I was paying already - my Internet connection has become very temperamental.

But to the point: I don't remember anything at all about 'dalethorn' and the koolaid confounds me further! Strange, because I'm normally one of those who, whilst able to forgive can seldom forget, worst luck! Must have been a very traumatic series of events!

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on September 30, 2012, 06:51:26 am
I don't remember anything at all about 'dalethorn'
I searched for this person on the site, hoping for a cheap thrill, but didn't have the patience to trawl through the eight pages of hits as the first half dozen posts I read seemed to be about small birds, or fungi, or equally harmless subjects. I also searched for "koolaid" but none of the posts were by or about "dalethorn". I guess the juicy bits have been removed.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Iluvmycam on April 29, 2013, 06:19:36 pm
everybody has shot it one time or anotjher. nothing new under the sun. (pretty much) Just  a different twist to it.

Ugly photos go into museums or to collectors. Pretty photos go to art fairs. It is that simple. And junk like Cindy Sherman or Egelston go for millions.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Gulag on April 30, 2013, 01:35:10 am
And junk like Cindy Sherman or Egelston go for millions.

Apparently you sound like you don't get it.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on April 30, 2013, 05:07:26 am
Apparently you sound like you don't get it.


Don't get what: that that stuff is crap or that the art world lives off crap?

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Gulag on April 30, 2013, 09:59:03 am

Don't get what: that that stuff is crap or that the art world lives off crap?

Rob C

Perhaps you need to be kind enough to give us your own definition of "stuff" and "art" first before any meaningful discussions can be engaged.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on April 30, 2013, 11:17:47 am
... before any meaningful discussions can be engaged.

Seems too late for that  ;)
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: theguywitha645d on May 08, 2013, 03:19:54 pm
The expression that i often see in Artist Statements, Letterheads and promo material is "artist working in the medium of photography"

I never work in the medium. Everything for me is large...
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: theguywitha645d on May 08, 2013, 03:23:24 pm

Don't get what: that that stuff is crap or that the art world lives off crap?

Rob C

To quote a member:

Quote
Advising someone younger than myself (I hope I am!) to follow his own star is what I’ve always recommended here in LuLa, as a check will confirm. In my opinion, there’s no other way to live with photography: you can’t be anyone else, so you may as well be yourself.

So what do you really believe?
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on May 08, 2013, 05:44:48 pm
To quote a member:

So what do you really believe?


Why, both points seem valid, don't they?

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: kencameron on May 08, 2013, 06:25:06 pm

Don't get what: that that stuff is crap or that the art world lives off crap?

Rob C
Just watched a documentary about Eggleston, and looked at some images on line. Do you really find no merit in his work? Oh well. De gustibus, I guess.

The art world is another story.
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Rob C on May 09, 2013, 09:23:17 am
Ken, I don't trust documentaries: they have the trick of selecting the very best and then making it seem it's the norm. Equally, I've seen a few about snappers whose careers have been in the same time-slot as my own, whose work I've usually admired, and when viewed outwith the pages of a magazine or whatever, the magic simply fades away to nothing.

Photographs outwith their intended context can be quite disappointing.

Partly, the problem with bios about snappers is that, usually, they have not a lot to say. It's not that they find themselves tongue-tied, but that their own lives aren't really what the work is about, and when the genre, style and/or content is what grabs you, it becomes a bit flattening to learn that the people themselves live ordinary, dullish lives as pretty much everyone else seems to live them outwith the job.

But when the work, too, is dull... then there's always a curator to liven up the perception, I guess.

Rob C
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: WalterEG on May 09, 2013, 04:42:55 pm
Photographs outwith their intended context can be quite disappointing.

Ain't dat da troof!!

W
Title: Re: Beautiful but shallow / Full of meaning but ugly
Post by: Gulag on May 09, 2013, 06:18:06 pm
if you can look at some of observations others had obtained long ago, the question answers itself, don't you agree?

(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/8718839525_5376a7e504_z.jpg)