Who has the authority to critique your street photography?

[airfrogusmc]

Guys, let me tell you a story that's very pertinent to this thread. I grew up in Florence, Italy, a place full of treasures in paintings, sculptures, and so on. Florence is also the birthplace of very good artists, like Ghiberi, Leonardo, Michelangelo and many more. You walk around the city and in every corner there is a wall fresco, a sculpture, a church dome, and so on that provide much harmony and balance, that sometimes it takes your breath away. You feel like the masters of the arts are still there with, keeping you company, giving you advice and suggestions. I judge and pass judgment based on two parameters : Beauty and Harmony.
In this vein, I want to repeat a story that one of my art teacher sheared with us: One day Michelangelo had just finished a painting, and as the tradition goes, it showed it to the public while he was hiding behind a curtain nearby, so that he could hear criticism or comments on his work. One of the viewer was a shoemaker, and he made a remark that the shoe strings were positioned and tied all wrong. Duly Michelangelo, after the viewing was over, made the appropriate changes to the shoes. Next day the shoemaker noticed the changes and, full of pride that the famous Michelangelo had followed his advice, he started to criticize another aspect of the painting. At that point Michelangelo came out of is hiding place, and told him to worry only about things he new, and nothing else.
So, how do we critic other people work? Do we only talk about things we know or…?
Giorgio

LoL great story...

 

[DNG]

I watched the video. Thanks for sharing.
But I don't think it contains a critique as the word 'critique' is often used.

I see an almost gentle subjective preference from the teacher on his student's work. And he's mostly talking about the visual aspects of the photos (what makes an image interesting and to what degree), which I fully agree that Street photography is not immune to those.

And we see this all the time here on RFF. It's just from time to time we see some comments that are delivered in a condescending tone, that is neither helpful nor it is well-meant (except probably from the giver's own very narrow definition of well-meaning). Even only a handful of these could drown out the constructive critiques. As one proverb says, it only takes one drop of ink to render a bowl of good milk useless.

As an aside, I love the photos being critiqued in the video, I think those are excellent examples of Street photography in color.

So to answer your question, Hsg, I am on the side where there is no authority figure, singular nor organizational. There are degrees of mastery, and there are masters (those who are gifted by both talent and resources to set a high standard).

Some of these masters are also good teachers who aims to share their knowledge and experience (I would be glad to attend workshops or gallery from one of them given the chance) and some of them won't be as generous.

But I believe you have as much right to criticize my photos as I do yours. And the goal is not to say "Your photo sucks" or "I'm swooning", the goal is to start a conversation (just as it is in this video) in which both of us may learn something. Sometimes this happens, other times not.

said better than I could...

 

[Hsg]

Is This Art Photography Any Good? - Take it or Leave it with Bruce Gilden

What Makes a Good Street Photograph? - Take it or Leave it with Bruce Gilden

 

[shadowfox]

Image of a parked car.

IDEA ALWAYS FIRST.

Your picture?
Very good!

 

[bhop73]

Here is another video where Eric Kim who has a following in the social media gets some harsh feedback from Costa Manos.

Costa Manos Critique of Eric Kim

I'm familiar with Eric Kim and his blogs/youtube, but I hadn't seen that. Thanks for sharing the link. What Costa Manos is saying to him really makes me think about my own photos.

 

[airfrogusmc]

I'm familiar with Eric Kim and his blogs/youtube, but I hadn't seen that. Thanks for sharing the link. What Costa Manos is saying to him really makes me think about my own photos.

Thats a great piece. Right out of the box he says to Eric lets see if we can find a consistent body of work. Then about 1:27 in there is an image that he talks about on its own it's kind of interesting but could work better in a body of work with other relating images.

 

[flyalf]

Is this morphing into a critique thread? If so, I have something to say.

One of the things I find lacking in a lot of street photographer is that the intellectual statement often pushes out the visual [visual: composition, balance, dynamics, etc], to the point where there's often no visual tickle at all. My personal belief and approach is that photography is first and foremost visual, and so, fundamentally, the visual needs to be respected, dealt with, and utilized, as an underlying requirement. Beyond that, you can go ahead and have your philosophical statement.

This is the reason, IMO, for the strength of HCB's work, and its durability. When I started as a news photographer, I went into it with that attitude, that every photo not only had to tell the story, but also be a visual experience. Anyone who wants to see what I did with that idea can look at my 35mm Flickr stuff, linked below, where there's a selection of my old news stuff (distilled version here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdarnton/sets/72157628767257187/ )

You can argue that this isn't a requirement, but doing it earned me awards every year, and got a lot of wire service attention and international distribution; unusual, considering that I was working on a very small town paper with less than 15,000 circulation and never promoted myself at all (my editor was entering me in contests--I just wasn't interested). Given a choice, I think people will prefer content + vision to only content.

In my opinion, too many street photographers get wrapped up in the situation and what it means to them, and nearly entirely forget the fundamentals of formal photography, ending up with half of a picture, something inadequate no matter how good the subject matter is-----merely snapshots of interesting things.

OK, I should just shut up, now....

No, please keep going!

Thanks for actually trying to discuss instead of hijacking with embedded photos. I have read trough posts I cannot understand that you post hasn't got more attention.

Imo you are to the point about the visual. For me it has always been a big puzzle that many street photographers seemingly neglect the visual impact of a photo and don't seem to care about composition.

So I believe anyone has the right to critique a street photo, first stating if this is a strong photo, and secondly opinions about how the photo is a street.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Here's and interesting very short piece on Stielitz's photo Steerage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtav_nMdrxE

 

[fotographz]

I agree with the Da Vinci story from Pepperd, and I actually feel no one has the right to critique a photo unless their observations are based upon a set criteria for that subject matter. I have been invited to judge a couple of Photo competitions and if it's a middle or high school contest I relax judging the production part and stick to the "which one of these photo's grabs me the most" . If the contest is for adults who should only present their best entry AND very well produced prints I will judge a lot harder. It still comes down to what I LIKE THE MOST...(and a different judge would pick differently)
I met Eric Kim and ended up sitting in on one of his street workshop's as they were showing the images they had shot that day...he then let them critique each others work...which I think is a very bad idea. That would be similar to a professor of the class allowing your peers to give you a final grade on a term paper.

As any critique or contest will go you hope to be judged by someone who is known as an expert in that area of photography.

...and then I for one don't know what I might like until I see what others have photographed.