Famous Photog getting away with it

[JohnMF]

My cousin and i were having a chat about famous and well respected photographers and he said that alot of them get away with or have got away with taking some boring or poor photographs simply because of their name.

One of the examples he gave, and this may be considered blasphemous by some :shock: , was an Ansel Adams Photograph called "Pine needles" (I think. cant find an example to post from google just yet). It's basically an almost black picture with a few lines of white were the light has caught the needles. He reckons if he had taken that photo and put it in his portfolio people would think it was crap.

Does he have a point?

Do people have a tendency to see the photographer without looking at the photograph?

 

[Lol999]

No, famous photographers have a greater appreciation of what is "art" compared to the rest of us :lmao:

Seriously though, I was looking at a "famous-ish" photographic couples website last night and thought how very ordinary some of their pictures were, in fact some were just plain exposed wrong in my opinion, whilst some were excellent. I guess when a person has a reputation, a "stinker" is usually interpreted as a deliberate act rather than the foul ups us amateurs have!

Lol

 

[Big Mike]

That's what is so great (or so bad) about art...it's all subjective.
If you like snapshots of you dog better than Ansel's photos...that's OK.

You may find themes & patterns and certain styles if you study a particular artist...but there will almost always be some pieces that are not representative of their body of work...so yes, everyone has stinkers...but not everyone will think that it's a stinker.

 

[albo]

It applies to all art I think... I'm still trying to get over that "Light Goes On and Off" guy who won the turner prize...

 

[panzershreck]

it's because they have a known reputation, and reputations bring pre-conceived ideas about artists' capabilities

i'm sure if people knew who i was, if i was featured in magazines all over the world, i'd be able to get away with "black man in cave at night" photos as part of an artistic theme on "monotone" photos

 

[slickhare]

i see what you're saying. sometimes blind devotees to artists just worship whatever said person puts out. but sometimes a picture strikes different people different ways. what seems like crap to one person might seem amazing to another. it all depends on your perception and opinion.