Most everyone is now familiar with Victoria Will’s tintype portraits of celebrities, made at the Sundance Festival for Esquire magazine (http://www.victoriawill.com/#TINTYPES); well-meaning online comments have read into the image of Philip Seymour Hoffman since his untimely passing (“Hellooo, he’s an ACtor.” “we KNOW, we WANT to read into it!”)
Now comes this justified rant from the artist Nicholas Payton regarding one of the oldest stereotypes, rearing its hoary head in journalism looking for a fresh angle on this story: http://nicholaspayton.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/another-shot-in-the-arm-for-jazz/
(The line “When Miles Met Philip” reminds me of “No, Ted Nugent went to high school with me.”)
Cranky Week, Part 2
A Kinder, Gentler District
“Understandably, the lack of information may increase your curiosity, but please avoid making hasty and unnecessary assumptions. We hope to deliver more details and clarity as soon as the matter is resolved.”
W. o’ …W?: Tony Whyton
“Experiencing a recording as a type of music as process counters the canonical imperative of reifying music.”
Big
14 Badly-Written Commentaries About The 19 Most Expensive Photographs Ever Sold
Over the last, oh, thirty years, writing about photography has evinced a spectrum of literacy from the academic to phonetic, and even street-style, journalism. Curiously, I have not witnessed this variety in the quality of writing about other art mediums. I want to believe that photographers (and/or their scriveners) are at least as literate as the general population of artists and writers, but here is evidence otherwise.
http://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/3004-the-19-most-expensive-photographs-ever-sold
Disclaimer: I have the proofreading disease. Despite and still…
“It has been a long debate weather photography has its place at the fine art table or not.” Why the passive voice? How is the weather a factor? Are we to assume that there is a table, perhaps for a banquet, at which photography earns its seat (“or not”)?
“Some would never consider photography to be a true art form, capable of reaching the depth of a painting or a sculpture.” Who are these anonymous “some?” What is depth in this context?
“Others are more flexible in this regard and look to photography as a distinct ,stand alone form of art that is in no way shadowed by other mediums.” I’m becoming more comfortable now with the indistinct number and the anonymity; I’m less comfortable with the spacing of words, and with the seemingly arbitrary deployment of commas.
“While more and more critics and art specialists feel this way, the majority of the art world has not yet fully welcomed photography among the other visual languages that represent the gross of the market.” Among? Gross? When was this written? 1974?
“The most expensive single photograph ever sold came at a huge price but still, a very long way from the most expensive painting ever sold.” a. Just drop in a comma whenever the mood strikes. b. Who cares?
“It is fortunately a growing market.” …for whom? Gallery owners and…?
“Naturally, with the number of photographers being so high, it is easy to become frustrated and intrigued about how the apparent simplicity of some of these works earned them so much money.” The numbers of photographers being high compared to what? Why is it easy for you to become both frustrated and intrigued “about” something? And might there be a word missing in that last part?
“It isn’t an easy answer to give and perhaps I am not the most qualified person to give that answer, however we have a three part series that will ultimately cover the 51 most expensive photos ever sold.” (Again, just punctuate wherever it feels right (never mind that you haven’t asked a question that can be answered).
1. Would “damaging” be some sort of editorial comment? Again, space and punctuate with impugnity.
2. This is not a self-portrait; rather, the photographer is the model for a conceptual conceit. Did the anonymous writer engage Sun Ra to type?
3. Sonny Blount again. “Space is the place.”
4. I’d like to own a piece of the comma action. This image, apparently, is an example of how one “stirs” the photography world.
6. Again, not a self-portrait.
8. “Sankt.”
10. Sometimes, one is too excited to observe literate conventions of spacing and of capitalization of names.
11. In the text for #9, the price range was indicated by a slash; now it’s a dash. Need it be only standardized by rhyming with “ash?” And why the middle-school marrings?
12. More lack of control over punctuations and capitalizations. (Editor’s note: I’m typing with my two forefingers; how’m I doin’?)
14. Please reveal to me exactly which historians think that these images wre a turning point for Mr. Weston, or that capitalized chambered nautiluses.
16. Perhaps Toonces was the typist.
18. How can we know when a portrait is unconventional, or how many consonants to use in an adverb, and how reassuring is it to learn that silver gelatin prints are available in an edition?
19. No matter in what year a picture was made, it’s helpful to indicate a range of years during which the picture might have been made. N.B.: It’s not necessary to type all the letters of certain words or names.
This is only the first installment of a promised series of three. Perhaps it comes from a place whose first language is not English. Enjoy.
Mural Art In Public Schools
Myron Nutting was commissioned in June 1934 to design and paint the Wauwatosa High School murals in the school’s art-deco style front lobby. 
Anyone who stood by the railing at the well between classes will remember the three-story high mural “Spirit of Education,” the WPA mural, in the main entrance hallway of Lincoln High School in the Cleveland Municipal School District. The mural is now a cultural and historical memorial which was painted specifically for the school in 1939 by artist, William Krusoe.
The large mural on the east wall of Dubuque’s Senior High School was painted by Cyrus Ferring in his spare time, the necessary expense borne by the student fund, and is a gift from Mr. Ferring to the school. It was hung in its present location in the summer of 1935.
This appeared, unannounced, over winter break in January 2013, filling some available space above the already-busy entry wall of Barrington Huge School. Rotating displays concerning student activities (occasionally giving way to student art), sit next to a patriotic collage hung over the shoulders of the reception desk attendant.
Rather than taking the allegorical approach used by many artists commissioned in times of financial uncertainty, the new piece consists of politically-correct buzzwords partially obscured by reproductions of yearbook-style photographs, each representing a decade of this particular school’s history; current logotypes used on district and school stationery; and the district’s “motto,” written in the style of other nearby districts. The application of spot color in the monochromatic reproductions, popular in 1980s television commercials and used sparingly (once) in a 186-minute Stephen Spielberg film twenty years ago, is employed no fewer than five times, apparently in an effort to unify the images. The designer is anonymous (design may have been by committee).
A One-Person, Self-Contained System
“When you are twenty years old and the photography instructor begins lecturing on form versus content, or that a photograph cannot tell a story, or that there are no rules of composition, or that things are changed when you photograph them, or that a photographic print is an interpretation of the world by a camera, or that he didn’t develop his film for months or years after he shot it; things can get philosophical and confusing pretty quickly… After seeing Garry shoot on the streets for the first time, I instantly realized that his print critique used the exact same technique as his shooting: confront, judge, capture and comment.) No one could size up a print in 1/500 like Garry.’
http://www.ocgarzaphotography.com/documents/ClassTimewithGarryWinograndfinal3.pdf
Time and Pictorialism
How are photographs supposed to look? Where might photojournalism fall on the spectrum between comfort and engagement?
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13072.aspx
http://maristredfoxesprssa.blogspot.com/
What would George Santayana have to say about all this?
Or this: http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/25/a-vibrant-past-colorizing-the-archives-of-history/#1
Sheesh.
Getting “Credit” Doesn’t Mean Much
“Part and parcel with requests for free images premised on budgetary constraints is often the promise of providing ‘credit’ and ‘exposure,’ in the form or a watermark, link, or perhaps even a specific mention, as a form of compensation in lieu of commercial remuneration.
There are two major problems with this.
First, getting credit isn’t compensation. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.
Second, credit doesn’t pay bills. As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc.
In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.”
http://photoprofessionals.wordpress.com/
Also: http://rising.blackstar.com/photographers-excuses.html
Creative Camerawork 