Pretty...

An interesting conversation has been going on between me and my friend, Gene. He's looked through my portfolio and told em the pics he thinks are "art" and which ones are just nice (which is his way of not saying a lot...).

Some people walk into a booth at an arts fair and look at the photographs taken and remark how nice they are, how "pretty" they are, or how a scene reminds them of something, some time or someone. (Brief break for the grammar/spelling/punctuation police: some time is two words, right?) I feel a snob to walk into those booths and feel uninspired or that some (but hardly all) of my stuff is better. Is that ego or simply objective thought? WTF knows?

Anyway.... Tonight, he and I were discussing one of my photos which he thought was "one of my best." From there a long discussion ensued about photography and art. At some point, I said that I felt that photography was largely an art of chance, while most other forms are ones driven by intentionality -- either in the outcome or the method (e.g. abstract expressionism). We discussed a handful of pictures where the outcome was hardly the objective but how some random element made the picture more special. Then he went off to be with his wife. And I came home to write my blog.

Two pretty mind-entralling conversations today -- understandable since it is the season of the Scorpio. Look out, stingers ahead!