[Leica] Fewer PJ outlets. A modest proposal.

[robertmeier at usjet.net (Robert Meier)]

There has been a FLOOD of new museums built over the last decades.

On Mar 30, 2010, at 6:34 PM, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

> Fewer pages available in fewer publications willing to pay for  
> photos to
> order. More and more publications turning to stock photography  
> rather than
> original, commissioned photography because stock pictures are  
> accessible and
> helps keep costs down. Amateur photographers willing to get paid  
> less than
> professional photojournalists, which makes their work that much more
> enticing to publications. How shocking!
>
> A while back I attended a seminar for artists in which many of the  
> same
> complaints were echoed. There were not enough galleries willing to  
> hang
> artist's paintings. There were too many amateur artists (read old  
> ladies who
> paint on Sundays). Pre-stretched canvases and acrylic paints made the
> technology of art too simple. Photos were taking the place of real  
> painted
> portraits.
>
> Substitute a few words and you get the litany of complaints that have
> clogged photo web sites the last few years. Auto everything digital  
> cameras
> make photography too easy and devalue hard learned skills. Ink jet  
> prints
> replace gelatin/silver prints to the detriment of darkroom work.  
> And, of
> course the unspoken feeling that "real" photographers work with  
> film in B&W.
>
> In an adjacent room there was a seminar for achieving archival  
> quality in
> paintings and prints. Artists want their paintings to last 1000  
> years just
> as photographers want their prints and digital files to be  
> immortal. They,
> the artists, and we, the photographers fail to realize that long  
> lasting
> works of creation are our worst enemy. Consider the following:
>
> 1. There is a limited amount of space to display creative graphic  
> works. For
> artists, there have been few new galleries or museums built in the  
> last
> decades and of those built, form often takes precedence over  
> display space.
> For photographers, the number of publication pages and photo  
> outlets has
> decreased markedly over the years.
>
> 2. Archival works, both paintings and photos last a very long time,  
> often
> many times longer than the person who created them. If the works  
> are good,
> museums and galleries that hang them on their walls are reluctant  
> to remove
> them. They don't discard Picassos or throw Ansel Adams photos in  
> the trash.
> Antiquated photos live forever in stock agencies. Seventy year old  
> photos of
> the Great Depression are recycled during every financial crisis.
>
> 3. There are far more artists and photographers now than there were  
> in the
> 50s and 60s. Because of advances in technology it has become easier to
> create graphic works of excellent quality. The ability to realize  
> one's
> imaginative vision has been placed in the hands of everyman.
>
> 4. The consequence of more artists and photographers, limited  
> outlets, and
> archival quality is that every modern creative graphic artist is  
> competing
> for display space not only with his or her peers but with every  
> artist whose
> work survives. As time goes on the competition will get more intense.
>
> The answer is not to bemoan the ease of entry into the field but to  
> minimize
> the longevity of art works and photographs. Suppose original  
> paintings and
> photos had only a ten year life. Art galleries and museums would  
> have to
> replace their holdings every decade. Stock photo collections would  
> find it
> hard to exist. Could it be done? Sure. Manufacturers expend great  
> effort to
> get paints and inks that won't fade and paper that won't  
> deteriorate. Look
> at your old slide collection and you will wonder where the yellow  
> went. Try
> turning the pages of a twenty year old newspaper. But we continue  
> to buy the
> good stuff for the most trivial of pictures, unable to face the  
> conjoint
> facts of our own mortality and that no one will give a damn about our
> pictures in 50 years.
>
> I haven't worked out how this will apply to digital media except to  
> make
> disc drives, CDs and DVDs self destruct in a few years. But they do  
> that
> anyway. Why worry.
>
> Larry Z
>
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