January 4, 2005
ANALYZE THIS !
nice weather you might think ! hahaha. this photo was NOT taken today but was taken last summer but I found it fitting for what I have been thinking about A LOT lately: WHAT IS A GOOD PHOTO ? yes, what on earth makes a photo better than another, which piece of art is more powerful than another, who is better, what is the best etc..... a deadly spiral. A spiral in which at least I get lost day after day. I have many ideas but because I feel so caught in this spiral i feel so blocked in my execution. i often even wonder what the purpose is of carrying out creative ideas ... don't get me wrong, I LOVE ART and it makes me feel very good if i see something i like but THE SPIRAL I talked about above really catches me almost every time. at least until recently...
Before this thought becomes too general, let's get down to specifics ! is this a good photo or not ? i think it is ... i just LIKE it, it appeals to me because i am a dreamer and its unrealistic colors and retro look make it unrealistic, therefore, ...... dreamlike. will anyone else like it? hmmm not sure. some will, some won't but what does it really matter? it seems to matter a lot at art school and i find it absolutely horrendous how art is judged in so called PROFESSIONAL circles. sure, one can analyze any image according to readability, form, contrast, moment etc... but the big question always remains, does it affect YOU ???
if it does, it works for you and that is great. if not, then, well, it is great too. however, i often frown upon the harsh critics of art school professors or "professionals" because when you really ask them why it doesn't work for them, they seem to all of a sudden be short of words.
not so much for myself but i see so many talented kids being discouraged because of this type of artistic reasoning and analysis. what happened to pure emotion? let us be more open minded and be guided by our emotion - less by our egos. let us be EMOTIONALLY TOUCHED by people's work, let us be open minded. no need to judge! i find that since i started to become a little bit more free of the judgemental habit of society, my ideas are less afraid to come out of the closet.
i love to see work where i feel the artist is not concerned with good or bad but just being guided by her or his emotion. a little over a month ago i had the opportunity to present my work to a class of graphic design students in Tokyo. all were between 18 and 20. they also brought some of their favorite photos to class. some of them VERY EMOTIONAL in content but to my surprise quite many of them seemed not to be aware of it. when asked why they took it, some said, "well, because i had my camera with me" or "because the weather was nice". then again it proves what i just talked about. they let their inside emotion guide them without really thinking too much. it resulted in something which really represented THEM and that made it powerful.
EMOTION IS A ONE WAY STREET
TO HEAVEN
FEAR IS A DEAD END
NAME picasonic : January 4, 2005 9:18 PM