'Every Man a Rembrandt'
When I look at how Paint by Number kits' selling point was "Every Man a Rembrandt!" I just can't escape to notice similarities with current claims about photography, involving digital photography and Flickr... And there appears to be even more: Just compare how the craze about older paint-by-numbers is not that dissimilar from the one about, say, found photographs.
The post which follows it - Death by Kitsch - the Trickle-down Effect in Art is worth a thought or two as well, which also fits in a bit with Christian Patterson's post I read the other day on the old TV Guide "Art Test"... take it yourself and see how you do.
I think the incidence of Kitsch in photography - while always a clear and present danger - has increased exponentially with the likes of Flickr and other mass sharing sites, especially - as quoted here the other day: "Photographic images used to be about the trace. Digital images are about the flow..."
Finally, from the dictionary of Sixty-three Words, Kitsch is: ''the need to gaze into the mirror of the beautifying lie and to be moved to tears of gratification at one's own reflection.'' and an awful lot of what passes for art, even good art - and especially photography - is pretty much kitsch.
1 comment:
I forget the name of the hallowed photographic institution (believe it got plugged by none other than Alfred Eisenstaedt) that ran a decades long advertisement meant to test your photographic aptitude,
just in case you were worthy to be honed into a proud professional photographer. Amongst the rigid criteria presented before acceptance, you had to choose between two photographs as to which had the better composition, and also had to choose which photo best exemplified speed- I think it was the blurry one of a guy running...
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