To be fair, Shel,
All you can really say is that this sort of photo doesn't evoke a response in ~you~.
They may evoke a response in others. I guess that means that it's art for some, but not all.
I wondered if the guy that made a dress out of meat and hung it at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and let it rot, then made another one over and over, was making art. Well, that was simple, really, 'cause it was in an art gallery, so it ~must~ have been art.
But I digress...
I'm not much of a bug and flower guy either. If I were, it's the type of photography I'd do. I'm not much of a nature guy (photographically speaking, that is). I was, however, quite awed by some of the stuff I saw from real nature guys at GFM. As I found out when I quite laughably shot a roll at GFM for the Nature Photography Contest, I'm pretty bad at it, and it's pretty hard to do well.
For some of these guys and gals (I found out), shooting Nature is a near religious experience.
Does that make it art? I don't know, but lots of people think it is art. Personally, I find that ~most~ sunsets are to art what Kenny G is to jazz (that is, they aren't). OTOH, a really really good sunset, I must grudgingly admit, can be like Kenny Garrett (ie: art and jazz).
I was just glancing through Elliot Erwitt's massive compilation, "Snaps" on the weekend. I really must get that book. I've always liked him, now I love him. Lots of fuzzy shots, for one. For another, he called it "Snaps" as a reaction to the "artsy" crowd (you know, the DIB's - Dressed in Blacks). He really doesn't seem (if I understand him correctly) to think it's important whether a photo is considered "art" or not - leave that to the critics, I guess. I rather like that way of looking at things.
Sorry to ramble. This started out as a two line zinger of a post, but I kind of got the bit in my teeth, as it were...
OTOH, Rob ~did~ ask. And you did answer honestly (honestly for yourself, that is).
<vbg>
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: "Shel Belinkoff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]><snip>
And, to answer the question posed by the subject, these ain't art. They are technically quite good, but evoke little feeling or response. Little different than when going to the museum as a kid and seeing all those bugs with pins stuck through them, frozen in time in a glass case.
Shel
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