Mikehit said:
AlanF said:
As a schoolboy, I defended the motion in a debating contest that: "The value of a work of art becomes apparent only at its auction". The ensuing debate convinced me never to take part in such discussions again. So, to quote Sam Goldwyn, include me out.
I remember a long discussion as a student on this, and one of my contemporaries was insistent that the 'worth' of an art piece was influenced by the suffering that the artist had experienced in his life.
I was reminded of this recently when I read an article on how there is a lot of computer-generated music the people don't realise had no human intervention other than writing the program, and it is getting to a point where they can press a button for 'rock' or 'blues' or 'melancholy'.
I wonder how long before they reverse-engineer face/object recognition to do the same with painting.
I agree on the basic premise that things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. However, the question, though, isn't
worth. It's whether people overestimate their skill in photography.
It may be hard to reach a consensus among many great photographs the best among judges, because this is a subjective evaluation,. But if you take an equal number of random photos out of flickr and add them to the mix, it will be easy for the panelist to come to agree on which half is
worse.
That's because the expression that a great photograph has good composition and lighting, and captures a moment isn't just tripe. Sure, there is a subjective element as to one's favorite photo, but there are many ways to objectively point out, for example, if a portrait is poorly taken. If one is an budding photographer, there are many ways to self-evaluate each work and ask, "how could this photograph be better?"
It's also the job of a photographer to understand things like what emotions certain shapes confer, how to use perspective, how to use field skills to position oneself, how to choose interesting locations, or how to work with the subject to create something special. The ability to do this sort of thing describes "skill" as a photographer, as in, the ability to consistently create great photographs.