Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/03

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Subject: [Leica] I'm freaking out, the art world is changing! My Eisenstaedt colle ction will soon be worthless!
From: Kyle Cassidy <KCassidy@asc.upenn.edu>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 10:27:00 -0500

People, art's not static. If galleries are not buying street photography
anymore but they're buying the "stuffed and mounted" shots that some people
seem to be having appoplexy about it's just the way of the world. If you
don't like them, don't buy them and call your agent and tell him the Curt
Marcus Gallery is no longer fit to represent you and from now on you're
showing your award winning street photos someplace else. The art world is
going to meander along on its fickle path with or without us. Remember,
julia margaret cameron was dressing people up and posing photos a hundred
years ago, so I'm sure HCB will be back in vogue before your grandchildren
are your age.

> >So what's a photographer to do?  Bite the bullet and shoot 
> >regardless?  Or slink away into the shadows and do 
> >stuffed-and-mounted shots.  Guess which option is easier for your 
> >average Artschool graduate?...

This list has never had much to do with Art photography. Really. I think the
ratio of Fine Art vs. News/Doccumentary shooters on this list is stacked so
heavily in favor of news/doccumentary that if we all got on a ferry and sat
on opposite sides it would capsize and sink to the bottom like a winnebago
filled with granite blocks. I think the number of us with artschool degrees
is probably pretty slim (I'll wager it's outnumbered heavily by the number
of us with degrees in law, engineering, and medicine) so we're not really
the representaitve sample of the art-producing world _anyway_. I don't think
artschool graduates are doing much slinking and we shouldn't worry that
they're compromising their craft to create photos they don't want to make.

SO -- my very valuable advice is to just keep shooting whatever you shoot
and when your copy of Art in America shows up on the doorstep, you can write
a firey letter to the editior because they keep printing that sh!t Anna
Gaskell is shooting.

Kyle

(p.s. I really do like anna gaskell) 

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