Art Appreciation

I believe that I am a reasonably good photographer. I am on my way to learning the techniques for identifying interesting subjects, capturing the nuances of natural light, creating pleasing compositions, and then taking pictures that at least passes the muster of my friends and family. They provide very positive comments when I post my pictures on Facebook. Even some of the amateur photographers, who are not my friends, say good things when they see them on Flickr.

However, any ego that I may have developed as a result gets punctured when I go to my photography club. The professional photographers, and there are a few who attend, yawn when it is my turn to do a show and tell. But, that is not the surprising part.

What is surprising is their pictures. I am amazed at how awful they look from the basic standards of photography that I have learned. The subject is out of focus, there is too much clutter, the composition is bad, and the lighting is atrocious. Sometimes they look as if children took them. And yet, the professionals praise each other’s work.

The clue to why they like those pictures instead of mine came when our host asked me why is my picture different from what thousands of people may have taken. I suddenly realized that people use two criteria when appreciating art: aesthetics (or inherent beauty) and how different it is from what has existed.

I further suspect that as you get deep into appreciating any art your personal formula for art appreciation moves from beauty of what you are looking at to its uniqueness. The jaded photographers can only take so many pictures of flowers, no matter how aesthetically it is presented, before yearning for something different, no matter how ugly it is in the eyes of amateurs. I get that part.

But then what makes in their eyes one “different” picture better than the other? To me they all look the same---“different” and hard to appreciate. I do not get that part.

This of course does not apply just to photography. Only a few can appreciate the artwork of Picasso (although many will pretend that they do) or the music of Arnold Schoenberg. What may look like a painting of silly rectangular blocks stacked for no purpose, or music that best can be described as two alley cats in serious fight, gives goose bumps to a few, while the rest of us look on with utter disbelief. Here to, there may exist hard-to- explain rules that make one cat fight better than the others, but I have not been told.

I do not believe that the engineer in me will ever allow taking pictures that are completely “different.” However, just for the fun of it, I should take some pictures that are out of focus, cluttered with all types of objects, have atrocious lighting, and violate every rule of composition. I am sure I will get showered with praise at my photography cub.