Wednesday, June 2, 2010

No gold star for effort.


Photograph literally in greek means 'light writing'. Therefore, a good photograph really ought to have two things, a) light, and b) form (helpful if some intentional arrangement is preconceived.) I see very little of either in the galleries or the darkroom that I print in. In fact, most work reminds me of advertisements I see in passing - busy, noisy, superficial, and just generally fake. The photographs seem to have no imminence and signify nothing, not even after careful looking can one give very often a benefit of the doubt and excuse it as an act of self mockery.


Yet, i'ts hanging there on the wall (well, if its one of the fewer and fewer photos that have the privilege of actually hanging on walls, in rooms,) taunting me to find something in it to justify its presence.

What seems to be occurring is a complete lack of criticism, anywhere. Friends shouldn't let other friends out of the darkroom (or, increasingly, allow them to click the OK button), without first having given some serious insight into the work. Is it boring? Say so. Is it liable to cause death upon viewing?! Say so. 

More people need to sack up and start evaluating work in a more critical way. And if you don't know how, then don't say anything at all. Your not helping. Ask them if they want to go have burgers or bubblegum or something, anything but lie and tell them there work is 'really awesome' or 'great' or whatever meaningless thing we say in lieu of meaning. And to those of us working to produce images, through whatever means, need to become brutal and absolutely cruel to ourselves. Better to end up with brilliant work buried under your bed, than scrawling your shit and your name all over the world; because it is about the work afterall, isn't it? That's what is supposed to be important. Everything else should be a secondary consideration.

Ultimately there is no line that one can merely cross in terms of hours worked in the darkroom, or miles walked out in the world, that finally distinguishes good work from bad work. Good work necessitates some reality of distinction in the person making it. It takes real life. So really, we ought to focus on becoming interesting people before we can hope to take interesting photographs.

My seventy five cents.

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