through my eyes

Photo:  Door to Door – Humboldt, TN

In a recent post on his blog, Paul Butzi discussed labels that are placed on photographic movements or styles and art criticism of photography.  He was responding to a couple of recent posts by Colin Jago and Mark Hobson.  Check these out for some lively discussion on this topic.

My feelings on this can best be summed up by this statement made by Paul:

All I can do is make the art I’m moved to make, and let the art criticism/fame/fortune chips fall where they may.  I’m sure that essentially zero percent of the world of art criticism would look at my work and say “Hot damn, this is awesome stuff.  Stop the presses!  We need to issue a new edition of Masters of Photography!”  And here’s the rub – it doesn’t matter.  I can’t make authentic work based on whatever current pseudo-intellectual fashion the the art world is currently infatuated with.  I can only make my own authentic stuff, mediocre as it might be, and then take a (apparently not true) page from Martin Luther and the Imperial Diet of Worms, put the work out there, and say “Here’s the art I feel moved to make.  God help me, I cannot do otherwise.  Amen.”

There are many (if not most) times when someone else says something better than I could and I say to myself, yeah, that is exactly how I feel.  I just didn’t know how to say it quite as well.  This is such an instance.  Thanks Paul.