Re: [Leica] OT:Photography and Art Photography/ was gradschool.

[S Dimitrov <sld@earthlink.net>]

Another time ago, individuals like Minor White, Beaumont Newhall, John
Szarkowski, and still current A.D. Coleman brought a certain reverence
in the way they observed the craft. It was quite apparent that they were
steeped in the culture of photography. They walked carefully with a
muffled step, almost as though they were observing something in a
natural habitat, not wishing to contaminate the moment. I have the sense
that they knew that the photographers were stumbling along on a variety
of roads of discovery as the medium evolved, and that they were
passengers on those many journeys as well. It is my impression that
their essays and commentaries were more along the lines of heralding to
a piqued population what was transpiring inside the craft, and much less
of a traditional compare and contrast critique. 
Ever since photography has been "discovered" and become marketable as a
thing unto itself, we've had to suffer the retinue and baggage that
comes with it. It's produced a great deal of tension inside the craft,
much of which I personally think is to the benefit of the medium. But
it's opened the doors to a hoard that ranges from the Sontagian shriek
for meaning to the Foucaultian self implosion, to name a couple. 
It's kind of like being in trench, you look over to see who is there
with you. As we're doing it, being there in that trench, doing our work,
I don't see this current generation of cassandras next to us in that
trench. In my case, as I document the discontent inside our economic
steerage in metro LA, I rarely see other photographers, let alone those
voices that will someday be telling me and the rest of us, what
happened.  So, yes I take issue with the bounders that come after the
event and try to co-opt it with all the devices at their disposal. 
Mind you, I think that a liberal education is worth every bit of
precious lifetime spent acquiring it. I myself come out of Religious
Studies, and if anything it has made me a far better photographer than a
slew of photography classes ever could. And yes, I took those too.
Although I should of spent some time in the business department.

	Slobodan Dimitrov


Guy Bennett wrote:
> 
> >When it comes to critics and academics, the Earl Butz aphorism still
> >rules the day--"he don't play the game, he don't make the rules."
> >  Slobodan Dimitrov
> 
> Meaning what, Slobodan?
> 
> Guy
>
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