Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Roger, > What do you want to do, Danny, moderate the list? It's a lot more > topical that much of what goes down here. Moderate this list? I'll take your off-color comment as an invitation to add my views to this discussion. I _like_ JP Witkin's work. It is beautifully conceived, composed, shot, printed and presented. It is disturbing beyond words and leaves most every viewer with a lasting thought about it. In my mind, the photos force a lasting dialogue and it seems to me that that is what powerful art should do. I find Ansel Adams work to be pleasant and harmonious but also lifeless. Adams best work has a grand resonance that reminds me of anthemic music and while I give him due respect and credit for mastering the skill, it feels cloying and unreal to me. It's a given (to me) that I don't truly understand Adam's work and since I'm not the person to ask about Adam's appreciation, I don't say things like 'Adam's was a fraudulent, conceited pseudo-artiste whom couldn't have done a damn thing except make a million and ride around in a pimp mobile'. When this thread became propoganda, rallying the call against Witkin lovers and their sinful (possible) use of Leica cameras to produce their 'garbage'. I took offense, and rightly so. In that environment, you get to hold your head high, secure in your group-think art appreciation skills and I, a Witkin lover, will be pitied -at best-. Another reason I spoke up is that this diatribe _refuses to go away. This is the fourth thread in recent memory that the same acidic vitriole (sp?) has come up. Should I really be embarrassed for the crime of appreciating Witkin, Arbus and (gasp) Serrano? Those of you who are most vocal about hating their work say it very forcfully and too often. If you're all really interested, why not give more respectful reviews? There's a large difference between saying that Adams was an extremely talented photographer who's work I find cloying and saying Adams was a no-talent, approachable fraud whose only real accomplishment was kissing the right cheek of the fraudulent, rich guy, 'art' world. Danny Gonzalez