Seeking out some entertaining discussion the other week I put a post onto a rather large photography group. With 20,000 members plus you'd expect some wit, wisdom or cunning insight, wouldn't you? No, of course not, I'm only kidding.
This was my post:
"I wuz talking the other day about photographers who have influenced me, by which I mean photographers whose work has had either a general or a specific impact on my way of working. This was my list: Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondriaan, Rembrandt and Rodin."
It didn't take long for someone to respond, someone whose profile pic actually included a large format bellows camera on a tripod, so I assume it must have been one of those zone-friendly characters who talk so much about slowing down the process, rather than just another narcissist with a camera.
But this is what he wrote:
"Do you mean artists and not photographers ? None of the names on your list are photographers. They all worked in other mediums."
Do I hear the death rattle of irony in this, or a lack of cultural awareness among people who own cameras? I deliberated for a while about how to reply, not wanting to bang on too much about my degree in Art History, so in the end I just put, "My one hope is that nobody else completely misses the point."
No one else responded. In fact, the page seemed to fill up with shots of trees, quickly burying my post.
