[Leica] Pictures, PJ, and art

[kennybod at mac.com (Kenneth Frazier)]

> But
> when we talk about photography as art, then pretty much anything goes:
> the line between what is real and what is the imagination of the
artist
> goes away.

Back to where I left off in this discussion....sort of:

I appreciate creative ventures of most type...the effort, sometimes the
intent, occasionally the result.  Thus, PS'd photomontage/collage/mixed
media "thingies" don't arouse my ire.  I am challenged by some of them,
left cold by others.  In the same way, Diane Arbus doesn't do it for me.
Walker Evans does...the mysterious vagaries of taste.

With the newer "photo" approaches, I suspect I am feeling the unease
that any and all generations have felt in the presence of significant
changes in artistic expression.  I know how to "grok" a Walker Evans
photo, in part because I view it with a measure of understanding about
what it took to get the image on the gallery wall in front of me.  I do
not know how to "grok" one of Gene Gort's media creations, at least not
yet, because in part I don't know how he created his production.  (In
fact, I don't even know where to stand with respect to one of his.  In
one of his recent installations, I was stymied by not knowing "how" to
view it.)

I don't know the grammar of the newer mixed media creations, yet.  (And
maybe that is one of the points...deconstruct the old hegemonic grammars
of representation...)

And, as long as I keep trying to learn, and pressing that shutter, and
have enough film, I'll be happy!

Ken Frazier