Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/11

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Details about Salgado in Chicago
From: Peterson Arthur G NSSC <PetersonAG@NAVSEA.NAVY.MIL>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:33:29 -0400

		Peter,

		I agree generally with your point, emphatically so!  As
someone once said (I wish I could remember who, but at the moment I can't),
"In any given age, most of the artists were bad, and most of the critics
were bad, and they loved each other."  But I also think it worth one's while
to remain alert to the possibility, however rarely encountered, of a critic
who is, in effect, an educator, someone perceptive enough to realize more
about an object than others might perceive, disciplined enough to focus his
consideration strictly on the object at hand, and articulate enough to
convey his perceptions to others.  Few fill that bill.  There were George
Bernard Shaw and the late B. H. Haggin in the world of music, the late Sir
Kenneth Clark in the world of art, and the late Pauline Kael in the world of
movies.  Whether there is (or ever has been) anyone like that in the world
of photography, I do not know.

		Art Peterson
		Alexandria, Virginia


		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Peter Klein [mailto:pklein@2alpha.net]
		Sent:	Friday, July 11, 2003 12:08 PM
		To:	leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
		Subject:	RE: [Leica] Details about Salgado in Chicago

		B.D. stirred the pot, saying:
		> What, I wonder - having seen all of Salgado's books and
being a great
		> admirer of his work - are the "profound implications of a
world in
		> transition" that the average viewer takes away from the
photos?

		A profound awareness that:

		1.  Hype springs eternal in the hearts of marketeers.

		2. All Great Art must be accompanied by reams of verbal
diarrhea written
		by an Initiated One of the Order of Deep Understanding,
designed to
		aid the great unwashed masses in perceiving The Message,
lest they be
		consigned to the pit of uncultured darkness and ignorance.

		Don't read that stuff. It's bad for you.  Just look at the
pictures.

		--Peter

		
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