- Messages
- 84
- Name
- Lunkwill
- Edit My Images
- No
Why isn't Parr's (or any other documentary photographer's) interesting to 'most photographers'? I think it's because people are stuck on teh idea that the everyday isn't interesting. But that's because they haven't learned how to look. I know people dismiss Ken Rockwell, but somewhere in his website is the advice for photographers to go to drawing classes. He's spot on.
Photography is all about looking. Being aware. finding the extraordinary in the ordinary as someone has put it. Instead a lot of photographers seem to make boring photos of spectacular subjects!
Photography is all about seeing, which I suspect is what you meant since everyone looks.
There are several different factors at work here. Some will be cultural, individuals being brought up with a particular set of values and worldview. Some will be how the person is put together and the things that naturally excite or repel. Some will be a matter of training and expection: whether they have been trained to pedestal/fetishise the right things. Boredom, as well as beauty, may well be in the eye of the beerholder.
While I would not suggest for one moment that it's not possible to find the extraordinary in ordinary things, one has to be a little bit careful that we aren't simply looking at the name of the photographer first and then filtering the image through that knowledge.