Dear future photographers of america…
I’m no expert on art, but I work at an art college and 6 years of watching installation after installation has left me bitter and cynical about the future of art in america.
Today I want to talk to you, the photography students. I’m not going to tell you what is good or what the world needs, I’m going to tell you what we DON’T need. Seriously.
We don’t need anymore photos of emo chicks with thick eye make-up staring despondently off at something the audience can’t see. We especially don’t need said emo chicks in ‘ironic’ non-emo outfits like a princess dress or a french maid outfit. The world has an excess of these photos, a surplus. It would actually be immoral to make anymore photos like this until we have used up the ones we have. No more pictures of emo chicks.
The ’emo chick’ photo trend is just an offshoot of the ‘old person in desolate surroundings staring off into space’ photo. I’m sure it was a necessity since art college kids mostly don’t know poverty stricken, lifeworn old people…but they do know emo chick. Still, it has to be said, “stop taking pictures of the grizled old people!!”. Stop it. You are not Dorothea Lange and channeling gobs of your parents money into the gaping maw of art education isn’t going to help you.
Get used to it.
Lastly we have the “urban decay” files. There are only so many weird angles at which to capture abandoned smokestacks, rusty dumpsters or condemned buildings and we’ve all seen them. Yeah, we all know that industrial growth has left an indelible and ugly footprint on the cityscape. You wanna know how we know? because generations of fucking photography students have been showing us.
That’s my message to you, the future coffee baristas of the world, take a better picture.
and in 180 degree news…
David returned from Wisconsin and there was much rejoicing. He leaves again tomorrow to go kayaking and camping. I will miss him again, but there will be much rejoicing at his return.
I started training Anna in on my job duties for the time she is covering for me while I am out on leave after my surgery. Damn. My job has a million tiny bits of info that I don’t even think about but I have no idea how to transfer that info into her head easily. The crappy thing is that I’m only going to be gone a few weeks and after the first week I will be available to help by phone so it just seems like a pain to dump 6 years of experience into her head for only a few days of use.
Plus, I know where everything is and what all the piles of paper are for. I don’t want to have to explain it.
Why can’t we just make a hologram of me??
it’s raining and it smells like spring rain.
Updating will be sporadic for a while. Typing this post has put my wrist to throbbing. I’m trying to avoid using my hand when I can. damn.