I once belonged to an artist group. One person of each media was invited to belong. I was the token photographer. The were always going on about this "meaning" stuff. Pseudo-psychological-babel was all it was to me. I did not remain a member long, only a few months, although I was flattered that they had invited me to join. BTW, I believe I, and one other, were the only ones who were not University of Michigan grad-students.
-- graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com http://webpages.charter.net/graywolf "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" ----------------------------------- frank theriault wrote: > On 6/27/06, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> The pretentious statement categories, of course! >> >> Pretentious statements seem to be applied, not necessarily by the >> photographer, most often to 'street' photographs and to 'art' >> photographs. Examples abound. > > I have to admit, my question was rather rhetorical. I know what my > feelings are WRT hearing such questions. Usually I feel like > something of an idiot, because invariably my answer is "I dunno." > > I feel stupid because I feel like I ~should~ have an answer, but > usually it would be "Well, it is what it is; it was there and I took > it. Either you like it or you don't. I liked it, and chose to share > it. If you don't like it, I can't see how knowing 'what I was trying > to say' will affect the pleasure or emotion you derive from viewing > it." > > I don't know much about art and art theory, and I'm sure that many of > you will recall that I can be rather vehement in stating that I'm no > artist. I've always thought that one of the things that define art is > whether the viewer perceives it as such, not whether "the artist" > intends it as art, and I always wonder why a viewer would question the > motives or "power of communication" (for lack of a better term) of a > photographer if the viewer "doesn't get it". > > I suppose I also feel some frustration that (as Bob points out) some > types of photographs get "the question" and others don't. Not to pick > on sunsets or landscape or nature photographs, but I haven't heard one > person say ask of the photographer of a bird on a branch, "What were > you trying to say?" Yet, one hears it all the time of abstracts, > semi-abstracts, "street" photographs and other such genres, and I > wonder why. > > cheers, > frank -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
