----- Original Message ----
> From: Paul Crovella <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <[email protected]>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 4, 2007 10:31:37 PM
> Subject: Re: PESO - Raindrops
>
> It's also the case that where other shots have "been done before"
> that
>
this one in
> particular has been done before to death and this shot has no
> interest
>
whatsoever to set
> it above the rest of the cliches.
>
> At best there's a couple pretty colors in the background but
> that's
>
nothing to save it
> from banality.
Paul, that's the thinking of a bored/depressed person. Billions of people
die - yest this does not make your OWN death commonplace. Humans have been
loving and making love since the beginning of humanity - yet this does not mean
that your OWN love life is commonplace. Maybe there are thousands of photos of
raindrops - yet this does not mean that each new one that you take cannot be a
small epiphany. This obsession of originality, of painting in a manner that
nobody has tried before, composing music in a manner that nobody has tried
before, taking photographs in a manner that nobody has tried before etc. is
typically European (and related cultures: American, Australian and so on). In
Japan, until the dawn of the 20th century, it was a thing of pride to be able
to paint like "the old masters" (almost the same traditional techniques, the
same themes and so on). Originality at any price is a torture, nothing more.
Allow me please to recommend you to read
"Doctor Faustus" by Thomas Mann - a book essentially about originality in art
and how the quest for it at any price can be destructive. A thing of beauty
remains beautiful even if it has already been painted in the same way for
centuries. Yes, maybe hundreds of photographers have taken this kind of shot
(the one with the drops). So what? Does this make the image (and what you feel
when looking at it) less beautiful? Does this mean that the aesthetic emotion
that the photographer felt while taking it was minor? Or the joy of sharing
that refreshing image with us?
I, for one, have enjoyed the photo. In the same way that I've enjoyed the
landscapes that somebody presented on the list a few days ago and that were
rejected when running for the Pentax gallery (I'm sorry, I forgot the name of
the photographer).
And let us learn the lesson of postmodernism: maybe the era when every
artist used to develop his absolutely unique style and themes is over and we
should learn to cope with this. And maybe the quest for beauty and authenticity
is more important than the vanitous and selfish obsession for originality.
Sorry if I sound a little aggressive, but Paul's comment started me
(yesterday, in fact, another member of the list issued the same kind of
comments, so I already was in an aggressive mood :) ). And sorry if my English
sounds artificial - I'm not a native English speaker.
A. M.
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