Comments on: Photography: What’s the Point? http://singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/ Photography in Small Doses Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:43:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: javan http://singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/comment-page-1/#comment-1124 javan Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:16:16 +0000 http://www.singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/#comment-1124 I just read your article about pretentiousness. I was feeling sorry for myself and typed in "photography what's the point" and your website came up. When I was in college, I just didn't fit in with the whole art department thing- I guess I was too middle class, or something. I was about ready to chuck it all when i took my first photo class. I realized that I found somehing I wanted to use and I have spent almost 25 years tryinmg to figure out what I wanted to say. Along the way I spent a lot of time as a"pro" shooting weddings, portraits, dog food, tanpons and whatever else a client wanted to see in 2d. My heart was never really into it, and it showed. Lunch hour was always spent walking around downtown scared to shoot the street photos that had turned me on to photography in the first place. Last year I pulled out my last remaining Diana (I hear the groans) and actually shot some stuff that I liked. I just found out the juror didn't like it as much as I did. Anyway, does anybody out there want a used Diana? I just read your article about pretentiousness. I was feeling sorry for myself and typed in “photography what’s the point” and your website came up. When I was in college, I just didn’t fit in with the whole art department thing- I guess I was too middle class, or something. I was about ready to chuck it all when i took my first photo class. I realized that I found somehing I wanted to use and I have spent almost 25 years tryinmg to figure out what I wanted to say. Along the way I spent a lot of time as a“pro” shooting weddings, portraits, dog food, tanpons and whatever else a client wanted to see in 2d. My heart was never really into it, and it showed. Lunch hour was always spent walking around downtown scared to shoot the street photos that had turned me on to photography in the first place. Last year I pulled out my last remaining Diana (I hear the groans) and actually shot some stuff that I liked. I just found out the juror didn’t like it as much as I did. Anyway, does anybody out there want a used Diana?

]]> By: Aaron http://singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/comment-page-1/#comment-851 Aaron Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:08:17 +0000 http://www.singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/#comment-851 Thanks, Chris. Whenever the question of equipment arises, I am reminded of Ken Rockwell's article, "The Seven Levels of Photographers":http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm. A lot of people disagree with some of Ken's reviews and opinions, but his description of the "equipment measurbator" hits the nail right on the head for me. Perhaps ironically, the mindset of the equipment measurbator is one that keeps HAM radio alive, and as a HAM myself I can say there is definitely fun to be had with equipment for its own sake. Nevertheless, art is art is art, no matter what you make it with. Maybe a plastic Holga! There is a small sidebar in Wired Magazine this month about a site that is aggregating cell phone photos as stock images or something. I am going to look it up when I get home and post a link. Thanks, Chris. Whenever the question of equipment arises, I am reminded of Ken Rockwell’s article, The Seven Levels of Photographers. A lot of people disagree with some of Ken’s reviews and opinions, but his description of the “equipment measurbator” hits the nail right on the head for me. Perhaps ironically, the mindset of the equipment measurbator is one that keeps HAM radio alive, and as a HAM myself I can say there is definitely fun to be had with equipment for its own sake. Nevertheless, art is art is art, no matter what you make it with. Maybe a plastic Holga!

There is a small sidebar in Wired Magazine this month about a site that is aggregating cell phone photos as stock images or something. I am going to look it up when I get home and post a link.

]]> By: Christopher Scholl http://singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/comment-page-1/#comment-850 Christopher Scholl Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:27:13 +0000 http://www.singleservingphoto.com/2007/06/26/photography-whats-the-point/#comment-850 I couldn't agree with you more. Pretentiousness is bad and eventually self-destructive in any aspect of life. It gets you nowhere and accomplishes nothing. I just today posted an article on my blog about a fantastic photographer who takes all her pictures with... get this... a camera phone. Now, how UN-pretentious is that? To me, that's just brilliant. And yes, you can argue that a camera phone won't produce images of the same technical quality as my Canon SLR. But technical quality alone does not make a photograph. If it did, all those artistic photographers out there shooting with plastic Holgas wouldn't be considered photographers. And of course they are. Thanks for the insightful post. I couldn’t agree with you more. Pretentiousness is bad and eventually self-destructive in any aspect of life. It gets you nowhere and accomplishes nothing.

I just today posted an article on my blog about a fantastic photographer who takes all her pictures with… get this… a camera phone. Now, how UN-pretentious is that? To me, that’s just brilliant. And yes, you can argue that a camera phone won’t produce images of the same technical quality as my Canon SLR. But technical quality alone does not make a photograph. If it did, all those artistic photographers out there shooting with plastic Holgas wouldn’t be considered photographers. And of course they are.

Thanks for the insightful post.

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