"Bowser" wrote in message
...
The Dusk or Dawn gallery is posted, and it's a very healthy gallery, too.
Some nice shots in there. Take a look, and offer a friendly critique, if
you dare.

http://www.pbase.com/shootin/duskdawn


[ ... ]

Very healthy, indeed, in the More-fine-work-than-not sense.


Can we talk about "critique"?

As a photographer, what do you want from a critical viewer?

As a critic, what do you expect the photographer to glean from your
comments?

As a non-critical viewer do you care if the photographer has any interest in
your impressions?

As a photographer, do you care what a non-critical viewer has to say about
your work?

As a photographer, what do you intend any viewer should take away from
exposure to your work?

Are there other, perhaps more-relevant, questions about the
photographer-viewer relationship that should be asked and answered?


This kind of thinking is hard work for me, so I'll say just a couple of
things I think:

From the photographer's viewpoint, it's kind of unimportant to me what a
critical viewer thinks about the technical aspects of my work; if I could
have improved it, I probably would have and if not, would not have shown it
(no guarantees, there).

From the photographer's viewpoint, what I want from non-critical viewers
is some assurance that they had a glimpse, impression, whiff of what and how
I was looking at whatever subject prompted my shutter-release.

From the viewer's perspective, I think it's worthwhile making a
distinction between "feel" and "think"; I feel as if there is too much
emphasis on technical aspects of images, but I think it's a good thing to
suggest and apply some "science" in some instances.

From the viewer's perspective, I try to see in an image what it is the
photographer was hoping to express at the moment of shutter release. If it
is merely a record of some visual aspect of the presented world, OK; did
they get that part right? If a more impressionistic gathering of elements
seems to have been the intent, I try to crawl into the photographer's head a
bit, feel what I think they were feeling, understand why they thought it was
important to capture. Sometimes it's not easy to get to that inner position,
and I might try to think a little more about what the image says to me,
apart from what the photographer planned or caught, or failed to catch.


From my reading of this forum I believe I've been able to learn enough about
the participating photographers to make some kinds of observations about how
their personalities and character are reflected in the images they submit to
the Shoot-In. I don't really want to talk about that, but there it is. What
do y'all think?

Very resp'y,

--
Frank ess