thorirv said:
is it just me, or has the focus of this website shifted completely towards gear/tech stuff (or antitech in many cases), or is photography still of interest around here? i don't mean to be rude, but when i started lurking around this place, i had the feeling that this was a place of photographers (on whatever level they might be), but it sure doesn't feel that way today.
I don't mean to be rude, but this is something of a recurring complaint -- it's more or less RFF's version of "Christmas has become too commercial."
Discussion emphasis in the forums does seem to oscillate between the gear-oriented and the photography-oriented (I suspect time of year has something to do with it) although I think you'll find that if you visit the gallery section regularly, that's where you'll find both a lot of worthwhile images and some rather thoughtful commentary about them.
While I've enjoyed many of the photography-related discussions in which I've participated, it's necessary to keep in mind that:
1) This is
Rangefinder Forum, which is a gear-based distinction right off the bat. Many people, including myself, feel that there really is such a thing as a "rangefinder aesthetic" and that it's interesting to discuss this phenomenon and its implications, but many others don't.
2) Like it or not, a forum is primarily a word medium, a fact which imposes limitations on the discussion of visual media. The ability to attach or link images is useful in providing a reference to works with which we're all familiar, but doesn't allow enough detail for a nuanced discussion of works with which we're not.
That means that starting a discussion along the lines of "Klima's new gallery show is just sublime, isn't it?" or "Considering her age and the volume of work she produced, would Francesca Woodman have such a big reputation if it weren't for her tragic backstory?" isn't likely to go far, simply because hardly anybody else will have much of an idea of what you're talking about.
I used to participate in a couple of online dance forums, but dropped out for that very reason: the group's geographic distribution was so wide that there was no point in talking about Concert X or Choreographer Y since nobody else was likely to be familiar with the topic -- so the whole thing seemed to be merely an intellectual badminton match consisting of batting generalizations and prejudices about well-known figures back and forth.