Shelli Emerson Foth

I carry my camera with me everywhere. From School to work, i always have it. I left it next to me on the table while i was at a coffee shop in Portland this last week, and i was approched by a man who asked if he could look at it. While this isnt all together uncommon amongst photographers i was a little wary untill the barista behind the counter mentioned that he was a photographer who comes in every day to make phone calls

I let the man look at my camera, he commented on its make and asked me a little bit about it.

Currently, im researching and writing a paper on modern photography and its transition from a more true-to-life documentary use, to a "photoshop fairytale."

This particular afternoon i had articles and books and notes spread out in front of me all of them concerning photography. I asked the man, (who by now had introduced himself as Zac Goodwin http://www.zoph.net/) if i could interview him. I figured it would be a good source for my paper.

The conversation that insued was about an hour and a half long, I sort of picked his brain about many different aspects of photogaphy and got his opinion on a lot of different topics. Talking to him was incredably interesting. I found out he had been a philosophy major in college and that added a whole new spin on things. I was able to talk to him about the philisophical aspects of photography not just technical stuff.

There was one thing that he said to me that really struck me.

We were in the midst of dicussing vernacular photography (if you want to know what that is, i can give you a "definition"). Its uses, its place in history, its place in museums and galleries and i asked him what he thought about Flickr. (http://www.flickr.com/) Flickr is a place for amature and professional photographers alike to post their pictures and essentially get peer reviewed on their work. This happens through comments, favorites and viewes on a particular photogrpahy. Your odds of getting all of those things are greatly inhanced by joining various groups dedicated to different subjects (like a group for cat pictures for instance).

What Mr. Goodwin said to me was this:

"Just because a picture is good on flickr, doesnt mean its a good picture."

I know, i know, not incredably profound, but acutally, to me it was.

I have a flickr, and is pretty much the only way i get my pictures out into the public. I'll surf around flickr and look at the pictures on explore (www.flickr.com/explore Its the best of the best on flickr.) and think, wow, my pictures suck. I see pictures and people who get tons and tons of comments and favorites and notes on a picture that, while its cute, its not amazing. You see, thats what Flickr is all about, its about getting those comments and favorites. Not about taking meaningful pictures. Flickr is a pop culture site for pop culture pictures. Dyptics and triptics of teddy bears and flowers. Over-photoshopped landscapes and cityscapes. This is flickr photography.

Art photography, i think is something entirely different. Art photography, is either aesthetic, just in the photograph itself. Or, it is photography that makes a statement. Something that says HEY, THIS NEEDS TO BE TAKEN NOTE OF. Obviously, the definition around art photography is as vague as the defintion of photography itself. Im not saying this defintion is a comprehensive one in the least, but what im saying is that Art photography, is not the same as whats being seen on flickr.

Its almost like wikipedia, Where wikipedia, is a great resource to hear the current discussions on a certain topic, you wouldnt use it in academic writing. Maybe you would use it as a reference list, but not as a credable source.


Flickr is similar. Flickr is the modern vernacular of photography. The current discussion on the topic, but in no way is it to represent fine art photography, or photography as an artistic medium. If the photography found on flickr, its the future of the medium, well, i quit.

(can you see the influence of research paper writing in this? i feel like im writing a paper in the first person, arguing my point)


ANYWAY,


the moral of my story is, i was pretty well dumfounded by this statement by Mr. Goodwin.


I get incredably discouraged about my photography because on flickr, i dont get comments, i dont get favorites and i dont get views. I dont take pictures that are good on flickr, and y'know what?


THATS OKAY.


Flickr is not the all powerful critic on photography. The flickr voice, is the voice of pop culture. The flickr voice, in all reality, doesnt know what its talking about.


So i cant judge how good i am at photography based on my profile views. Its not an accurate measure. Its just not.


That little statement, and this research paper im writing, have changed the way i take pictures. I've started taking more meaningful pictures. Ive started using my photography as artistic expression of the self, rather than just trying to get a picture explored on flickr. Its been good for me.

Its made me think. I like that.


Shelli