jeff hladun
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Even that is not always the case. The classic example of a good work of art being unappreciated can be seen with Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. At its completion, Picasso showed it to his close friends, some critics, some dealers. It was met with an almost complete rejection, and so for years Picasso kept it hidden, leaning against a studio wall behind other works. It was only years later that the painting was sold; it is now considered THE most important painting of the 20th century.Prosophos wrote:
And for my friend Jeff, from Toronto. You may not like landscape images, but you certainly can recognize a good one when you see one. No?
Peter.
www.prosophos.com
What is interesting about Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has much to do with this discussion of your definition of a good photograph. Picasso was wrestling not with subject matter of painting, or with technique and stylization, but with the compositional constraints of the four sides of the frame. Subject matter was subordinated to his working through the limitations of the two dimensions of the canvas, breaking the visual boundaries that existed beforehand. This was difficult work for Picasso to explore, and I'd be hard-pressed to imagine I could have appreciated his undertaking had I been there to witness it at the turn of the century.
Even to this day, for those who don't get the painting, it is most likely due to the fact that they still look at it in terms of subject matter. Primitive figures, not at all pretty, big flat spaces of paint. Viewing it in terms of releasing the tensions of composition from the constraints of the four sides (and the plane of the surface, too) is where the fresh way to see a painting rests.
Gerry Winogrand and Ralph Gibson work(ed) with these problems in the photograph, and I believe many people would be hard-pressed today to enjoy their images, if their definition of a good photograph is limited by its ability to "grab". What I'm trying to say is your definition, while it may be credible as a factor in a good photograph, is sub-ordinate to other features of a good work of art. Quite often we may be mystified as to why an image holds creidbility; it may escape us, but for some reason we can appreciate it even if it is beyond our understanding, comprehension and our enjoyment.