I have almost completely stopped attending the openings of photographic art exhibits or going out to look at gallery shows. I hate to think that I am becoming a crotchety old man, but I am not really interested at the moment. I think that’s because of the approach of art photography. Contemporary photography is means to initiate a discussion while eating dry cheese on stale crackers with a plastic glass of wine decanted from a foil lined box. The photograph is a back drop for an appropriately abstract discussion of whatever topic seems to be socially relevant at the moment. The interpretation can change with each viewer because everyone's opinion is correct. It’s almost performance art where the art is in the conversation about what the photograph could mean.
I like to think of contemporary academic photography (the source of all the aspiring “career fine art photographers” that are drawn to photo festivals as a moth is to a flame) as what happens when technology has become so easy that it allows virtually anyone to create a photograph before they can come up with a well thought out reason to create a photograph. In summary, one can spend a thirtieth of a second to make the photograph and the rest of their life trying to explain what it means.
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