[Leica] Re: A Revised Critique

[Douglas Cooper <visigoth@cloud9.net>]

> I'd like to revise my critique of Steve's work.  Criticism is a serious business, and should not be attempted in anger.  In truth, some of the photos impressed me very much.
>
> I disliked the Chasidic portrait because -- in the absence of something new (difficult in the wake of Roman Vishniak) -- this kind of photograph tends towards mere exoticism.  (I hesitate to use Edward Said's work, "Orientalism," as it is explicitly not intended to apply to my people.)  To have a black figure with the same posture in the background does, I suppose, make a political point of sorts -- or does something towards
> defining an interesting mix of neighbors typical of, for instance, Crown Heights, but it does not entirely lift the photo to the level of some of the other work.
>
> The second photo is entirely successful.  It captures a moment of street grace, bordering on the redemptive, and is particularly interesting as an editing choice:  not many photographers would have left that starred light in the background -- not only is it novel, but it has iconic value (a famous book of Jewish philosophy is called The Star of Redemption).
>
> The third photo is a nice irony -- two contrasting centuries of transportation -- but is a bit of a one-liner.  Still, a good one-liner is a good one-liner.  (Take my wife...)
>
> And the next photo I like simply because the guy in the background looks like me.
>
> I'm not entirely convinced by the framing of the fifth photo, but the slovenly vs. the uniformed is a nice irony, and less of a one-liner, by virtue of the Romanesque architecture (which attempts absurdly to add historical resonance to the "Old" post office -- typical American bombast).
>
> The next photo in fact begins to pull all of this together into what might be called a theme (or perhaps even your style):  the juxtaposition of the dissimilar.
>
> And while the seventh photo leaves me cold, the eighth is almost a Classic example of street photography:  it is an occasion of pathos and nuance, caught at just the right moment, and beautifully framed.
>
> I don't have time to go into the rest, but ten and fourteen strike me as particularly good.
>
> Anyway, I hope that atones for my earlier critique.  No, you don't find this sort of work in the amateur section of second -- or even first-tier photo magazines.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Douglas Cooper
>