about my critique

[mysteryscribe]

Let me begin by saying I am talking about me not you...

I tend to suggest things to people even when they are pick a nit stuff. Or sometimes just way outside the artist's vision. Without a few words from the artist I can sometimes just plain get lost. So I say something like. I think it would have been a better shot if you cropped out the rabbit in the corner. Only to hear later that the shot was about the Bloody rabbit in the first place. (thats new composition for you) Well that might be a bit far fetched, but I do hear a lot that my critique misses the mark. Which is interesting because everyone knows I'm always right.

Now I'm a big believer in the image speaks for itself.....

but sometimes I need a little help seeing someone else's vision. So if I do miss your vision please don't be shy about saying so. The only real opinion worth a flip in the end is the artist's. He was there, we weren't. If he wants to shoot it upside down thats his right. It's our right not to like it, but he certainly isn't wrong for doing it.

Now what I'm trying to get to here is maybe we need to make sure that after a certain amount of cooling off time, we go back look at our images and write a closure to them.

After having looked at this I think you are all full of crap should do nicely. Don't you ever wonder what the shooter thought. I know I do.

 

[The_Traveler]

Now I'm a big believer in the image speaks for itself.....

I agree with this emphatically.

Just the other day however, I had a friendly exchange with someone who had posted an image with a little bit of text imbedded in the image (sort of like a greeting card).

To my comments/critiques I made a little addendum to the effect that I generally didn't like pictures with imbedded text, like a explanation I was forced to read.

His response was that he added the text so that the viewer would know what to think about the picture.

My unmade response was that a picture might evoke different feelings or thoughts in different people and who was I to censor them in advance.

IMO opinion, a good picture, no matter what the content, evokes feelings, thoughts, ideas that extend beyond the frame.

TT

 

[mysteryscribe]

I might have been the party with the words in the picture, since I do make some posters.... Usually the image and the thought go together pretty well but sometimes they are a bit obscure, since I am not quite mainstream.

However now and then I miss the point of an image completely. When it is explained, I see that it was there all along I just missed it.

Generally though I do believe the image speaks for itself. That said we dont all see the same things in an image and thats a good thing to. At least I think so.

 

[JC1220]

His response was that he added the text so that the viewer would know what to think about the picture.

If one is trying to get a very specific point across, is attempting photojournalism or some other mixed media along those lines, fine, put all the text you want.

But, as a photographic artist in the pursuit of fine art, to infringe upon a viewers experience by attempting to force your vision on them is nothing more than selfish and arrogant.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Now that made the most senes to me. The piece has to knows it's place in the world. You can't measure a movie poster the same yardstick as a Picaso.

A poster of a bike leaned against a bicycle shop is just a picture of bike. The thing that makes it more is the words that turn it into a political statement. In and of it itself it isnt. It is just a bike.

the red print at the bottom was not part of the poster it was added to put onto another old time forum.

sometimes the words are part of the image and it still speaks for itself.

 

[rmh159]

... Now I'm a big believer in the image speaks for itself.....

I agree with this statement whole heartedly. Take out the photo journalism example... it usually surprises me a bit when people post a photo, no one gets it and then they provide an explanation to what the photo is. Isn't the point of photography to convey an emotion, statement, whatever via THE PHOTO???

If I take a pic of something and need to write a short essay on what it is and why it's important... wouldn't you say I missed the mark with the photo in the first place?

It's just my opinion but that's the mark of a truly good photograph. One that needs 0 explanation.

 

[mysteryscribe]

For me the poster is the words as much as the image. Sometimes you want to say something and you dont have the right words yourself. A poster on the wall can make the statement for you. The bike shot above was made for a bicycle bar in some town somewhere outwest.

What I meant is if you have to justify your image, you didnt think much of it. Now I tell what equipment and the process ie tinted as opposed to using color film. I do that only because people kept bugging me for the information. I would just as soon post images here with my name in this box and the picture under it.

People are curious about how we did it, where it was shot, and the time of day ect.

When someone says it's too grainy and you are shocked, then you have a problem as a photographer. If it is grainy and it doesn't work for YOU, the photographer, then ya sudda tossed it out. It someone says it's grainy and the image is about poverty in south carolina then HE didn't get it, or I didn't do it right.

Not everyone is going to understand, but at least I should. If I shoot something that I feel emotional about and nobody else gets it. I'm sad but I don't feel I wasted my time.

But I try not to say hey look at this it's great. Believe me I want to. I have a photo up now that I thought would just wow people. It wowed two people lol and one person hated it. I posted it two other places with mixed reviews. I personally still like it. If I had a gallery I would put it up in a flash. Hey that's a thought. I should turn my lab into a private gallery. Talk about the ultimate ego trip.

This should be a seperate thread actually.