I feel the need to explain my habit of commenting on exchange prints.?
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In the late 1970s I fell in with a group of accomplished photographers here in Eugene, and quickly became friends with all of them. Every couple of months six to eight of us would gather over beer and Mexican food and pull out a few of the prints we had been working on. Subject matter varied widely: landscapes, abstractions, portraiture, nudes, you name it. It was all black and white printed in our home darkrooms, none of us had the time or patience for Cibachrome. The film we were working with ranged from 35mm to 4x5. Our approach was simple: all the prints were laid out under good lighting and we went around the group, one person at a time, and shared which two prints we were most drawn to and impressed by. Each person had to say why he or she felt that way about that particular print. It was a very causal, positive exchange. Once in a while one of us would ask for constructive criticism but that was rare. And it turned out that, since we all had our biases about subject matter, printing styles, etc., by the time the evening was over most everyone had been the recipient of at least a few good words.
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I fear I have carried the spirit of those sessions with me when offering up comments on the exchange web site. I had hoped that my observations would be joined by other group members who felt strongly about prints other than the ones I mentioned. But as one of our participants shared with me, despite my caveats, my singling out a few prints was implicitly dismissive of the ones I didn¡¯t mention (my words, not his). And that troubles me greatly.
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I went up to my studio and spent quite a while looking over the exchange prints from the past year or so. And I realized there were many, perhaps most, of the prints that I could have - should have - commented on. I recognize that a large part of the problem is my biases, in what I value in a photograph. I am drawn to photographs of nature and wildlife, of people and places outside North America (especially Africa and the Indian subcontinent), to natural abstractions. And though I recognize that the initial focus of this group was on mastering digital printing techniques, it seems that most of us do a damned good job printing nowadays. So I focus on subject matter, composition, etc., all the while viewing though my own filters. If another half dozen of you were offering up your observations as well mine would probably be balanced out. But as it stands I have been guilty of selectivity, and have likely offended several of you who are too polite to tell me so.
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So¡ the end result of this introspection is that I have decided to stop posting comments on the images in future exchanges. Please know that I have more appreciation for all the work submitted than my past words have expressed. And I will continue to look forward to each box of prints that arrives at my door like a little kid on Christmas morning :)
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Steve
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Stephen Mustoe