I really don’t care …

I came across this comment on a photographers blog recently. It read something like: I really don’t care about what you had to do to make this image. What physical effort it took you to get to that location or how many times you had to make return trip because the light wasn’t to your liking. I only care about how this image made me feel. And I didn’t feel anything at all while looking at it.

Pretty brutal and harsh response, I thought. However, I did agree with this point of view. Because, I also believe it doesn’t really matters how much of resources, planning or physical hardship takes to create the image when it comes to judging its aesthetic value. That should not make any difference here. Nonetheless, we all naturally value more those things for which we had to work harder in our life.

Maybe photographer felt the same way about his image and perhaps instead of only writing about how it was difficult to make it he could have written more about why he had to make it. That could have possibly produced more balanced post and created different perception. It wouldn’t only imply that image was somehow more valuable because it was harder to make it.

By the way did I tell you how I had to drain this lake before I could make this photograph … Seriously, I think it doesn’t really matters what I tell you about the image as irrespective of that I know that there will always be large amount of people( maybe even 99%) who will be left wondering: Why would anyone photograph a pool of water on the ground ?

So, like that viewers comment that started this post I could also say that I really don’t care … as long as I can keep making images that bring me a joy and images that are meaningful to me.