I can't believe this made it to page 6.
If not for that, I'd have not introduced folk to my "Scythian Gold Standard", thought about what the damn phrase meant nor re-examined what Photography Schools were teaching. I ended up impressed with the "good" experience an MFA in Photography can give. Mine was in little villages in Nigeria and the place in Mozambique where blacks and whites have little to no sense of racism and in the townships in Zimbabwe where saying Zanu instead of Zapu could end up with an African being beaten up. My answer to Will is that fine photography is something distilled from life's experience, the tranquil, awesome, shameful and frightening. Engraving
that in a photograph is something I want to do. That to me is the struggle to make art and I'd love a few of my pieces, like my sons, to do better, be more honest, do more for people in their life than I have in mine!
In the end, I am happy just getting the work done and feel great if others actually appreciate my work. I do not do it except for ideas and feelings and to help lift a lantern.
To Will's original rant I would simply comment, "so what? who cares" Words are cheap and delusion is frighteningly close to universal.
I think that Will would agree with you here! His rant is directed against that very self-delusion. Yes, he's overboard, but he'll float!
Yes, Will, there
is Fine Art Photography! And BTW, Americans
did land on the moon and Extenz™ will
not lengthen your life span, give you more miles to the gallon or stop flowers from wilting!
My fear is that the tidal wave of pictures in the last 10 years has so cheapened the whole idea of photography as art that art is everything and nothing. You eat lunch in these high end trendy sandwich and wine places and some guy has 5X7 inch snapshots printed by Costco in frames with prices in the $220 - $350 range.
Worse, it's made up 10 foot tall and overlaid with acrylic on which someone has printed a train schedule
"... and that goes for $62,000", says the Givanchy clad lady coming straight out of Vogue as she leans forward and passes me the Bordeaux, touching my arm, whispering, "I think I can give you a special deal of $42,000." She's now within warmth of her face and body range, "You see, we're packing up for another exhibit and we are trying to sell the remaining few pieces of this collection, so they don't need to be stored! I'd like to it go to one of our best clients, someone who really appreciates fine art!" I look at her and appreciate the hunter in her, stalking her prey!
By audience percentile I mean, if your stuff is hanging in the Getty and people are reacting to it, chances are it is art.
That is as close to a definition as I can imagine!
Asher