OP...On another forum they had plenty of critics that said my stuff was crap. Never a good word from most of them. The best I could hope for was silence.
Here was what some of them had to say about me...
"I don't like color."
"I don't like BW."
"I don't like HDR."
"I don't selective color."
"I don't like diffusion."
"I don't like Hyper-Real, it is too cartoonish."
"Your photos are too contrasty."
"Your photos are too grainy."
"Why don't you take pictures of something pretty like flowers or a sunset instead of those ugly things."
"Your trying to make something out of nothing."
"Your photos are too sensational."
"Don't photograph the homeless."
"Don't photograph kids without their parents permission."
"I find photos of people boring."
"Your not a good photographer."
'Your exploiting the homeless."
'Your photograph does not work."
"I don't like flower photographs they are boring."
"I don't understand what were you trying to say?"
"Digital photography is not real photography."
"You work is not museum worthy."
"Your work is over processed."
"Don't take pictures of people in public without their permission."
"Don't photograph anorexics."
"Cover up her breasts."
"Your photos are staged."
"I don't like your photo because it leaves nothing for the imagination."
"Your photography is vernacular."
"You should trash that photo."
"I don't like fisheye photos."
"I don't like wide-angle distortion."
"Don't send unsolicited photos to museums."
"She (the person in the photo) is a drunk…she is fat…she is an attention whore…she needs to go to the gym…she is trailer trash."
"Your self-centered"
'Your self-absorbed"
'Your inconsiderate"
"Your a phony...your all talk...you don't know how to take photographs." (When I don't send in any photos to the forums.)
"Your a troll...your looking for attention...your trying to boost your website traffic...your an egomaniac." (When I do send in photos to the forums.)
"Your goofy"
Well…working hard for the last year I was able to place my photography at the following public instituions during the last 11 months. (Except LACMA was placed in 1974)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Rhode Island School of Design - Special Collections Fleet Library, Rhode Island
Oxford Bodleian Library - Special Collections U.K.
Toronto University - Thomas Fischer Rare Book Library, Canada
British Library - Special Collections, U.K.
Rutgers University - Special Collections Library, New Jersey
Columbia University - Special Collections Avery Fine Arts Library , New York
Oglebay Institute - Stifel Fine Arts Center, West Virginia
Mennello Museum of Art, Florida
Art Center College of Design - Special Collections, California
Brown University - Special Collections Art and Architecture Library, Rhode Island
University of California Berkeley - Special Collections Art Library, California
The Art Museum at The University of Kentucky, Kentucky *
Mead Art Museum - Amherst College, Massachusetts
Victoria and Albert Museum - National Art Library, U.K.
NYU - Special Collections Fales Library, New York
Amherst College - Special Collections Library, Massachusetts
Stanford University - Special Collections Art & Architecture Library, California
Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, China
Allen Memorial Museum - Oberlin College, Ohio
University of Exeter - Bill Douglas Centre, U.K.
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center - Vassar College, New York
Flint Institute of Art, Michigan *
Noyes Museum of Art - Stockton College, New Jersey
RISD Museum, Rhode Island *
California State Library Sacramento - Special Collections, California
International Center of Photography - Special Collections Library, New York
Fashion Institute of Technology - Special Collections Marcus Library, New York
Wright State University - Special Collections Dept of Art and History, Ohio
American Motorcycle Museum - Pinkerton, Ohio
National University of Singapore Art Museum, Singapore ***
Colby Museum of Art - Colby College, Maine *
Tweed Museum of Art - University of Minnesota, Minnesota **
The Kinsey Institute, Indiana
University of Southern California - One Archives, California
Bibliotheque Kandinsky Special Collections - Centre Pompidou, France *
San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas *
Spencer Museum of Art - University of Kansas, Kansas *
Yale University - Special Collections Haas Art Library, Connecticut
UCLA - Special Collections Charles E. Young Research Library, California
UCONN - Special Collections Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, Connecticut
Brooklyn Museum Library - Special Collections, New York
Muscarelle Museum of Art - College of William and Mary, Virginia *
The National Library of Sweden - Special Collections, Sweden **
Museum of Fine Art Houston - Special Collections Hirsch Library, Texas **
The University of Chicago - Special Collections Library, Illinois **
* Delivered - Pending Board Approval
** Accepted - Pending Delivery
*** Requested, Pending Delivery and Board Approval
This list is not up to date. I can add another 10 to it. No time to update it. Maybe this is a world record? Don't know or care. Sure some photogs have more placements. But who gets near 55 or 60 in 11 months? My goal is to archive my work before I kick off and that is what I’ve been doing. And I'm still not done.
But to get back to your subject at hand. I have an extensive photo book library and use it. I learn from the net as well. But most of all I shoot like hell and have 44 years of experience of making mistakes.
You can have 2 parties look at the same thing and one likes one hates. So your question about forums liking or hating can be correct. Also the people viewing have certain likes. I’m not much of a landscape person, I like doc work. Some people say they hate people photos and just like sunsets. You can’t argue taste. In my own case, Oxford and Columbia liked my work but Harvard and Princeton did not. You can’t force them to like one's work.
In the end we just have to come to peace with our work and let the critics huff, puff and stew in their own juices.