jonathancharlesphoto

First a response to Eugene's point:<p>

An artist's work may be a collection of <i>objets trouves</i> and

these may be photographs by other people. <u>But</u> the

content of each photo is an artwork (however trivial) by the

photographer. So the collector / editor is just a second-hand

artist (rather like the photographer who snaps a series of

paintings in a gallery - the real artist is the original painter). The

only way the collector makes a significant artistic contribution is

when the collection takes on an identity which is radically

different (and greater) than that of the individual

components.<p>The role of the critic is rather different, and here

we return to the original question. The artist may know what he

is trying to express but not how well other viewers of the work are

able to pick this up. A good critic can in a negative way report the

failure of the message to get across (to him) and in a positive

way may see in the picture important aspects that the artist

included subconsciously, as part of intuitive creativity. Either way

the artists own examination of his work is only part of the story.

<p>(Please assume "IMHO" and for "he" read "he or she")

Returning to Mark's original question - I think the problem isn't

the subject matter, it's <i>Why you take the photo?</i><p>

His gripe, as I understand it , is the simple recording of the

object - like "I just saw this nice geranium, here's a photo of it ..."

or "This really rare bird came and sat on my fence and I

managed to get my camera out before it flew away ..." or even "I

hired this model and amazingly she agreed to take her clothes

off ... Wow! look at her ..."<p>

I think he's got a point. IMHO if the photographer is actively

thinking about the picture he wants to make, the best angle, how

it is lit, what is in the frame and how it is composed <u>then</u>

it is a creative process - whatever the subject. <p>

It doesn't have to be very original - that depends on how much

the photographer knows other people's work and can think of

new ideas.<p>

"There's nothing new under the sun" - but we can all have our

individual ways of looking at it.

See my <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_i

d=122229" target=blank>presentation</a> for the series<div></div>