Expertise vs pretention

Hmmm, may be contentious, but, I bought some high end photography magazines recently, and I've come to a conclusion, justified or not, here it is.

I can take the most boring poor quality mundane pointless shot, but if I dress it up with a pretentious description using words like 'interpretation' 'society' 'challenge' and 'juxtapose'/'homogonou​s' I can just pass it off as 'art' and people seem to take that at face value?? For example, this just popped up on my facebook....

Personally to be a good photo it has be technically spot on, focused or blurred, whatever, and have a meaning/story, something that grabs me or interests me, there has to be a point to it, this one does nothing at all for me, 99% of the stuff on this site has far more value to me that this....

https://www.facebook.c​om …478297520/?type​=3&theater

That image is amazing! My mind is swirling in the cosmic vapor of the juxtaposition of white on red, the lines, the inferences of society with light on dark. Frankly, this image is the answer.

Jim

iowajim wrote in post #17767963
Frankly, this image is the answer.

Remind me what the question was.

OhLook wrote in post #17767967
Remind me what the question was.

I will defer to Heisenberg on this one.

iowajim wrote in post #17767976
I will defer to Heisenberg on this one.

So you're not certain?

OhLook wrote in post #17767978
So you're not certain?

Exactly uncertain!

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17767948
Hmmm, may be contentious, but, I bought some high end photography magazines recently, and I've come to a conclusion, justified or not, here it is.

I can take the most boring poor quality mundane pointless shot, but if I dress it up with a pretentious description using words like 'interpretation' 'society' 'challenge' and 'juxtapose'/'homogonou​s' I can just pass it off as 'art' and people seem to take that at face value?? For example, this just popped up on my facebook....

Personally to be a good photo it has be technically spot on, focused or blurred, whatever, and have a meaning/story, something that grabs me or interests me, there has to be a point to it, this one does nothing at all for me, 99% of the stuff on this site has far more value to me that this....

https://www.facebook.c​om …478297520/?type​=3&theater

I either like it or I don't. Done. The artist is free to interpret his work however he chooses.

You may do well to remind yourself of the primary purpose of broadcast (larger sense of the word) media: to deliver your eyeballs to the advertisers' message. Everything else, in any broadcast medium, is just fluff to get you there.

Yeah, I know, that's basically what my last line says, my problem is when the message is vacuous and pointless.

I think the problem in general is that society thinks of art as an objective thing... it's not and never has been.

Seriously now: One thing that's relevant is that fine-art photographers are judged by their body of work, not by a single image. If you saw the ceiling photo in the context of a collection of Eggleston's photos, you might still not like it, but it might make more sense to you as part of an enterprise of showing how he saw the world.

That's a fair comment, but I hasten to add that image was just grabbed as it popped up as I was writing the post so I used it as a general image to make the point, so nothing against him. The stuff I was thinking of I saw several shots from a project, from several photogs, and it was just awful, I threw the mag in the bin in fact. A 'fine art' photography mag I've not bought before. Didn't even see the word camera mentioned anywhere, in a 'photography' mag, maybe I just dont get art, I'm an intelligent guy, artistic too, but I just dont get that stuff

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17768073
Yeah, I know, that's basically what my last line says, my problem is when the message is vacuous and pointless.

1.) I believe rating your own work, to yourself, is the only meaningful evaluation of your work.
2.) Rating your own work to others is pretentious.
3.) Rating the work of others vacuous and pointless, unless the critique is requested.
4.) The appreciation of art is individualistic.

I don't see a place in any of this for third party evaluations. They exist merely because so many people need to be told what is good and what is not. How is it possible that one cannot know what your own opinion of something is?

Jiminy Cricket! I've got an opinion about everything!

1. Maybe, it's a point of view certainly.
2. Don't agree with that, 'I'm really happy with this, what do you think Dave' isn't pretentious.
3. Art critics, and people who go to art galleries, or enjoy art, are all vacuous and pretentious?? Art critics maybe....
4. Yes, but that can apply to anything.

welshwizard, I think there's something peculiarly American about Eggleston's work, a kind of brashness, a celebration of the gritty details of the everyday environment, a defiance of the conventional ideal of beauty. Maybe this doesn't mesh with U.K. sensibilities.

welshwizard1971 wrote in post #17768165
1. Maybe, it's a point of view certainly.
2. Don't agree with that, 'I'm really happy with this, what do you think Dave' isn't pretentious.
3. Art critics, and people who go to art galleries, or enjoy art, are all vacuous and pretentious?? Art critics maybe....
4. Yes, but that can apply to anything.

1. Granted, different viewpoints on this one.
2. A polite way of requesting a critique. Also, a poor one. Leading question. Leave off the "I'm really happy with this, " and it is better. I'd never ask such a question, but I'm certain others do.
3. Art critics, yes. Those who go to galleries (I do) to view, and possible enjoy, the works are doing one thing. Those who go together (I don't) to enjoy/critique/discuss the displays are doing something quite different, yet still valid. A discussion of the display among interested parties is quite different than a critic offering his (her?) meaningless opinion to the great unwashed. The only thing I've ever learned from a critic of anything is that said individual apparently has no qualifications for a meaningful job, like waitress, doctor, trash truck driver, soldier.

I am quite capable of forming my own opinions. Can you tell?