"Why do I like this?"(posted 8655 days ago)Because you have an active imagination. I had a conversation yesterday with a very successful commercial photographer who is retiring and now wants to be an artist. I don't think it will work. He's had a career of making images that deliver a very specific message that you can "get" in the 1.7 seconds before you turn the page. He can't imagine deliberately making an image that has conflicting messages, or at least grants the potential of personal interpretation / relevance to the imaginatively well endowed viewer. He wants to make pictures that are "beautiful", and that's all. No option to say "yes beautiful, and _____" (Fill in the blank with your favorite second thought, i.e. "sad", "tragic" "sexy" "ironic" "funny" "wierd" "scary"... well maybe he'd allow sexy, he did work in advertising).
A successful art image demands constant re-thinking, has relevance and asks questions that shift as your perspective on life shifts. Just as age, finacial situation, love life, spiritual awareness and other human concerns color our perception of experience, so does good art reflect those shifting perspectives as these conditions change throughout our lives, and even through out the day... t