Re: size matters

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Sun, 5 Aug 2001, Shannon Stoney wrote:

> I read the article that someone pointed out was in the NY times today, by
> Vicki Goldberg, and this seems to be essentially her point:  size is
> impressive.  She was reviewing a show called "Size Matters."  She didn't get
> much further than that.  She also mentioned, though, that fine art
> photography, in Stieglitz's time, used to be on a much more modest and
> intimate scale, with the 8x10 contact print being the rule.
> I was kind of surprised that she didn't examine the implications of the
> trend toward huge photographs in very much depth.

I suspect there are limits on what a reviewer (especially a free lancer)
can say in any publication that depends on selling ads for its profit.
Gursky is today's god... But to me Vicki Goldberg said it all, although
she more or less dropped it in normal "conversational" tone:  You wouldn't
notice them if they weren't so large (or words to that effect).  As, for
instance, you wouldn't especially notice, say, a moth in the garden, but
if it were as big as a Gursky ????

Seeing the line of skiiers in the huge mountain scene -- I'd call it a
tour de force & it's also a feat of technology, but to me not inspiring as
art.  Of course feats of technology & tours de force are great
components... & maybe applied to nature they're enough, I didn't see that
one.  What I have seen is only in repro, and maybe you have to be there to
be wowed by the scale.

PS. Thanks to Carl on lapidary, which is as he suggests common usage in
criticism. I wasn't trying to be arcane.

And PS on PS:  On e-mail I recommend putting the PS BEFORE the signature,
otherwise odds are it will be missed -- as at least two of us initially
missed Tom's naming Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, tho I think he spelled it right,
as I fear I have not.

Judy

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