Digital BW, The Print

In the introduction to 'Columns & Catalogs'
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0935724680/defontescom), Peter
Schjeldahl ruminates a little bit on the role of the critic, and proposes a
couple of "working questions" that I think make for a great framework for
how to enter into a critique:

1 - "Why would I have done that if I did it?" What was the artist trying to
achieve? Did they succeed?

2 - "What would I like about this if I liked it?" Maybe I'm not the intended
audience, but what can I identify about the work that is "good", regardless
of whether or not I like it. For instance, I hate musicals, but I can still
tell a good musical from a bad one.

I think it's a really interesting challenge to try to put some structure
around why you don't like something, and I think it's incredibly useful for
people to hear, when it's done in a way that's not a personal attack that
"hurts their feelings". I agree that it's hard, but I always thought that it
was the best part of the class. :-)

-Jason


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jerry Olson [mailto:jerryolson@...]
> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 5:38 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] ...Print Exchange
>
>
> I think one of the reasons many didn't say anything about the
> prints, is that there
> may have been criticism that would hurt someone's feelings.
> Especially someone just
> starting out in Digital printing.  Although almost all of the
> prints in the exchange were indeed excellent quality, there were
> a few images
> I just didn't care for. Even though an image may be perfect print
> quality, perfect composition, and look great, if the subject matter turns
> you off, it's hard to like the print. I'm usually the kind of
> fellow that doesn't like to hurt anybody's feelings, so I have a hard time
> criticizing someone's prints. I taught photography for a few
> years at our University a long time ago, and Had a lot of really
> bad prints
> submitted. I never liked the critiquing portion of the class!
>
> Of course one could just limit the critique to the positive things....:)
>
> Jerry