Re: [Leica] Seasoned professionals vs lacking taste......

[Jeff Moore <jbm@jbm.org>]

At 13 Oct 1998 17:10:18 -0400, Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net> wrote:

> I hope you guys aren't trashing this guys photographs only for their
> content (nudes).  

While I'm not one of the guys who'd gotten around to `trashing this guys 
photographs' (and far be it from me to engage in such an activity!), had I 
been, it certainly wouldn't have been because the fellow happens to take 
nudes.  I think (were I the trashing sort) that I'd lay into the 
excruciatingly portentious series titles (and indeed the name of the 
gallery or whatever sort of enterprise Raven Visionary Arts is), under 
whose mawkish weight the photos, some of which seem perfectly... okay, 
strain to the point of collapse.

Were I at all inclined to trash Mr. Hughes, I'd merely point to the Artist's 
Statement at

    http://www.ravenvision.com/rvaicons.htm

and let it do my work for me.  But of course I intend to do no trashing.

I get the impression of someone with very different criteria for embarrassment 
than I, someone who perhaps suffers from an acute lack of sharp-tongued friends 
with common sense to keep him from overinflating.  But he's probably very 
happy that way;  bless him.  You'll not catch me doing any trashing.

I think that what others may have found annoying (the word `offensive' must be 
reserved for things capable of evoking a stronger reaction than these photos) 
is the combination of Mr. Hughes's pretentiousness and the banality of most if 
not all of the photos.  We're adults here;  I doubt many of us are 
automatically offended by some pictures of naked ladies with props.  I suspect 
that the primary reaction was, ``Yeah, and...?''.  Mr. Hughes set himself up 
for hard judging by his less-than-humble attitude, and couldn't come up with 
the goods.

At least, that's what I guess others may have felt.  Me, I'd never trash the 
guy.  Long may he wave.

 -Jeff Moore <jbm@jbm.org>