Who has the authority to critique your street photography?

[Paolo Bonello]

Paulo, I find some humor here and I like the balance of the two men but the background is so busy and with the exception of the look after yourself better wording it doesn't seem to relate much to the foreground and those bright rectangles of light upper right just seem to grab my attention.

I do find the question raised about is the guy looking at the car the owner interesting? Or maybe a stare down LoL....

I would love to read your words on it.

I chose this image because I struggled with the framing yet could not seem to improve it by cropping in post.

I agree about the busy background especially top of the Chemist facade and the block of neon sign. You should see it in colour, it's a fruit salad. Didn't really know if I could have improve that area since I wanted to keep the dentist sign and the two individuals in the frame. Felt they might all be part of the story. So yes it's busy and it distracts, totally agree. The rest I find interesting like it's a mystery that you need to solve so it outweighed the negatives.

The mini parked with one wheel on the kerb at an awkward angle, well I found it immediately bizarre and humorous hence my simple reason for taking a shot.

If I had to guess at the back-story I imagine the owner might have been having an extremely bad day. Inside the dentist perhaps? The Chemist's slogan has more relevance if the driver is suffering as I imagine he might be. The parking ticket on the window to top his bad day and all the cars that forced him to park so awkwardly are now gone and he just looks like a fool. Kinda like that scenario where one guy in the parking lot creeps into the next bay and the error is compounded by the next car and the next until you get the last spot but it's got a divide line right through the middle. Oh well, it's a spot so you park there regardless but when you return everyone around you is gone and you look like a tool who parked in two spaces.

 

[Hsg]

I had written something here about this image but I deleted it. I do enough self critique anyway so lets hear it.

The image is descriptive - somebody badly parked a car and a passer-by is looking at the car.

That is what the viewer gets right away, even though that maybe not the case.

This is what Winogrand has also addressed in one of his videos that you can find online. How can you "show" more than the simple description? That is the challenge of street photography.

 

[MIkhail]

Image of a parked car.

IDEA ALWAYS FIRST.

 

[Sparrow]

Image of a parked car.

IDEA ALWAYS FIRST.

... that is not a car, as we know it ... em, Jim

 

[airfrogusmc]

For better or worse I have been a professor.

You teach someone how to take photos -- and the next thing you know -- one has turned into an art director and the student's photos are now no longer their photos, but a reflection of the professor. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

Many students are hopeless, at least at the moment one meets them. Maybe someday the light will turn on, but not now. But if forced to critique, the professor is forced to stumble around like in the video in the OP. Not much else you can do, unless you just tell them to go home. I have never sent anyone away, unless they refuse to work (and a few pervs in drawing classes who were hoping for nudes).

The best thing to do is have friends who are creative who you like, hang out with them, look at their stuff. Listen to them, talk to them, share your lives.

Go to museums, watch movies, read lots of books, keep a journal... you know the stuff you do naturally when you want to be creative.

No one is an authority unless they are holding the checkbook that feeds your family.

Agree😀😀😎

 

[FrankS]

I think it is good to get feedback from as many as you can. Then it becomes crucial who you listen to as I said in # 107.

Frank is here and a great source. I would surely take his words to heart.

Going to have to get used to another Frank being around here again.

Ill go by FrankS. The last initial was added some years ago to differentiate me from another Frank that used to be here.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Image of a parked car.

IDEA ALWAYS FIRST.

Yes this is very nice. I really like the way all the lines line up and the reflectors on the truck repeat the shapes in the wall. Nice optical illusion going on to.

Lewis Baltz like....

 

[kbg32]

For myself, one image does not mean anything. Is there more? Is this part of a larger project?

 

[airfrogusmc]

For myself, one image does not mean anything. I need to see more. Is this part of a larger project?

Yes I do agree.

 

[kbg32]

I disagree.

Stand-alone images are important. Without them, no so-called body of work can be valid.

No Ned, I believe you are agreeing with me. A body of work can be valid if a stand-alone image is representative of the whole group. If it is a one-off, and that is all that is presented, it doesn't tell me anything more then that. One can never know what the ideas, intentions, or the person behind it is about. We can guess, but it will just remain an enigma. Nothing more.

 

[kbg32]

I am saying this because I'd like to see more.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Each piece is like pieces in a puzzle supporting the large whole the body of work. One good image no more makes a good photographer than one good at bat will put a baseball player in the hall of fame. The images have to be strong but they need to be strong in the way they support one another and if they are going in an exhibit need to have a flow and a consistency of vision. And that flow may be much different from the flow that may be required for a book or a portfolio.
Some interesting words on one of the photography great books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHtRZBDOgag

 

[kbg32]

Or one can look at the work of Nathan Lyons, whose pivotal book "Notations In Passing", explored the relationships and the expansion of meaning with images sequenced without text.

 

[kbg32]

It doesn't have to be that way.
Simply, a bunch of great images are enough. No need for bad, or average, fillers.

I understand your point Ned. Good, bad, or average does not matter. If one is going for a larger contextual meaning in a body of work, the images should support each.

 

[airfrogusmc]

It doesn't have to be that way.
Simply, a bunch of great images are enough. No need for bad, or average, fillers.

Good photographs that have no visual relationship to one another is easy. Try and make good photographs that also relate visually. Try and put 40 together or 100 or so for a book. And then make sure they flow well from one to another and have a real visual consistency. When done well, thats extraordinary. Any good photographer should be able to make a bunch of unrelated good images.

 

[kbg32]

Very true Allen.

 

[airfrogusmc]

Frank started a thread for bodies of work which could be fun if anyone is interested.

Title of the thread is Style is a clock without hands....

 

[Hsg]

Image of a parked car.

IDEA ALWAYS FIRST.

This is the sort of shot that you see in the movies, just before the actors walk into the scene or the camera zooms into the building then the scene inside the building starts.

There is nothing wrong with the shot graphically, but there is no center of interest.

 

[C. D. Keth]

EVERYBODY has the right to critique any piece of art. "The arts" are a variety of forms of creative communication and if that communication doesn't reach somebody, then it has failed. You don't have to take everybody's word but they have the right to give it.

 

[peppard]

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