Monday, December 08, 2008

Brooks on Eleanor


Brooks Jensen, who I admire as a photographer (I own his October Seas portfolio) makes fun of BlackBook magazine as they proclaim teenaged photographer Eleanor Hardwick to be the an upcoming big thing in art photography.
I think he is a little condescending, Eleanor is actually quite good, better than most I see in the magazines, even those with decades on her. (Like usual, I wish her site had larger images.) OK, Brooks tempers his statement to say he is not making fun of her, but for a while there it really sounds like he is.

Of course he has a point about magazines like BlackBook. They are moronic vehicles for celebrity, with absolutely zero interest in or knowledge about genuine artistic content. But that's what they do. Expecting anything else is like expecting "Teen Idol" magazine to publish an article with new psychological insights.

Upon research, it is looking the phrases which most rubs Brooks the wrong way, though, like "next big time art photographer" and "be afraid Annie Leibovitz" are artefacts of Fox News as they covered the BlackBook article. Another layer of superficiality was added. The original article was not that bad actually.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When photographers trash each other so bitchily they're in danger of being thought a bunch of flaming homos like the fags of the fashion industry.