So Much Esoteric Hoo-Haa

October 7, 2007 Bill Gatesman Art Criticism

One may gather from my first two posts [What Makes an Artist, October 6, 2007, and My Autumnal Garden, October 4, 2007] the gist of this web site. Those posts illustrate, perhaps, a type of thinking that a dear friend and I often refer to as “oogly”. For fear that I might lose myself in the clouds of esoteria, I share with you the following observation by photographer Morrie Camhi as a splash of cold water to better keep things in perspective.

Morrie Camhi has observed that: “There’s a sort of sickness that seems to have pervaded photographers. We talk photography to death! We get essays written about our work that precedes the pictures . . . . Then the photographer writes an artist’s statement. Then a critic writes an interpretation of the photographer’s statement, [] the introductory essay, and the pictures. . . .”

“Good God! By the time we’re through, the joyousness of the photograph has often gone. There’s so much esoteric hoo-haa talked about photography — particularly by critics.”

— Morrie Camhi, as quoted by Peter Adams in LensWork, No. 41, Jun-Jul 2002, at p. 59.

You may consider this web site my contribution to the esoteric hoo-haa. If you prefer just to see the photos, you may skip the words and go directly to the Gatesman Photo Gallery.

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