Photo Critics

Came across this lengthy article in the Boston Review, "The Treacherous Medium". Susie Linfield surveys the various thoughts issued by photography critics. Appearently, most critics of photography dislike the very category they troll. To such beings, the appreciation of photography is an admission of ignorance or simplicity.

Here's one quote...

...it was not fashion or art photographers who incited the wrath of these critics but, rather, socially conscious photojournalists, with their foolish belief in such old-fashioned fictions as progress, truth, and justice. “The liberal documentary assuages any stirrings of conscience in its viewers the way scratching relieves an itch,” Martha Rosler scoffed in a seminal, oft-quoted piece. “Documentary is a little like horror movies, putting a face on fear and transforming threat into fantasy.”

My Gallery Crawl business card reads 'photojournalist'. That I am. For me, every photograph is inspired by the moment of chance variables captured in the frame - beyond systems of thought. A critic's categorical generalization is the product of limited experience.

The arrogance of professing certain knowledge of other people's minds is astonishing. I'll not debate with the clever musings of silly observers whose core ideas are formed (and destroyed) in the whirlwind of intellectual fashion.

Just my opinion.