[Leica] Art photography

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

We are perilously close to a discussion on what is art. In the immortal
words of my neighbour* when I said, as a conversation starter at a block
party, "Art is beauty!" he replied: "No S--t, you lucky sod. My friend Art
ain't much to look at but pretty quick with the beer."

There are as many views on what is good art as there are "Arthurs" in this
world. We often confuse what we like with art. We feel threaten that if
something we do not like Really is Art then the other kids will tease us and
pull our hair. Perhaps that is why, when faced with art we do not like, we
tend to tease and pull the hair of the artist and those who admire them**. I
think the person who's comment on Eggleston's work was that it made him
"barf" illustrates this nicely.

Some have taken up photography as a hobby and escape from the pressures of
relationships, work and life. They like their beauty to be pretty and pretty
obvious as well. An artist usually has taken up photography to illustrate
and comment on this stuff of life that the hobby escapists are trying to
avoid. Naturally having the "banality" of life thrust upon them would give
rise to frustration and anger. So who is right? What is Art's function? Are
people wrong to use a hobby to escape reality? These are all questions we
have to ask and answer for ourselves not for others.

One also does not need to appreciate a particular piece of art to make valid
criticisms of it. The statement that Eggleston's landscape work is not your
cup of tea as you find the everyday humdrum banality of it quite tedious;
shows that you have looked at the work, recognised certain elements in it
and decided that you do not like it. We could parachute any of the artists
that have suffered in this recent thread, with appropriate descriptive
changes, into the above statement and come up with valid, dare I say
constructive criticism.

What is Art. I do not know.
What should Art portray? Hmm.
What do I appreciate, or not, and Why? Ah.....there I can help you.

John Collier


*an entirely fictional device
**yes I am using a plural as a singular but I do not like the form: him/her.