State of the Market on Art Info
In the wake of the recent Steichen sale, Art Info has posted a state of the photography market. Most of the article concerns price trends, but then contradictorily ends with admonitions not to buy for investment reasons.
And what's up with this ridiculous comment?
“If a photographer is good, there’s less likelihood they’re going to make a terrible photograph, while even if a painter is good, it’s pretty likely that every now and then they’re going to make a terrible painting.”
Are you kidding me? That's a circular and illogical statement if I ever saw one. A good photographer is, by definition, one that always makes good photographs, but a good painter is one that mostly makes good paintings? Huh? At heart, I do believe photography is inherently superior to other media, but we can be a little more thoughtful about why. (I'll be thoughtful later, I've got a lot of work to do.)
(via A View From the Edge..., owner of the above quote.)
My comments have nothing to do with the superiority of a particular medium and certainly aren't as dogmatic as your interpetation of them! Perhaps you should ask a painter as to whether they agree or not.
Perhaps the thinking is that photographers, being used to throwing away the large majority of their photographs, are less likely to release something mediocre than painters, who may try to make every painting a winner?
I'm not sure I support this view, and I haven't studied the whole body of work of a good painter, but it seems possible.
On the other hand, the one painting that I might choose as being sub-standard could easily be your favourite, so can this really be judged?
I've beenthinking about work process and how photographers are able to express their own style, and some of my thoughts are relevent there.
The large number of photos taken are more like the sketches and test paintings a traditional artist makes prior to executing the larger canvas. There's no reason a painter has to "release" a canvas once its painted if he doesn't like it. For instance, its not entirely uncommon to find false starts painted over by masterpieces in painted work. For those that were dimply thrown out, we don't have access to them, but I don't think painters try to make every effort a winner.