Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Beautiful Photograph

I got into a discussion the other day with my good friend and fabulous photographer Craig Sterling. (www.craigsterling.com) Craig posed the question, "what ever happened to the beautiful photograph?"

This led to a discussion of what is going on in photography today, the role of conceptual art and its influence, and whether or not too many critics are afraid of saying that a lot of what passes for current "fine art" photography is "the emperor's new clothes" school of photography. So much of contemporary photography seen in museums and galleries is just plain boring, ugly, shocking for the sake of shock, and/or some meaningless drivel where someone has confused access to a subject with talent and has tried to pass it off as "important' documentary work.

I'm not sure we came to any conclusions but it seemed like good topics for discussion. As such I'd be interested in what others have to say on the subject.

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