I’ve just been reading a new book by Lucy Souter called ‘Why Art Photography’ and in it she recounts how she always asks her photography students the same question during her course.
The question is ‘What is the difference between an art photograph and a designer handbag?’ (Soutter 2013, Location 179)
She says she always gets the same range of responses which she describes as follows:
“Some are natural modernists; they believe that an art photograph has aesthetic, expressive and craft value for its own sake and that it is inherently more precious than a mass-produced handbag. Others are critical realists. They argue that photography’s function is to tell important social and political truths, whereas an expensive handbag is a mere frivolity…..There is usually a small group who we could call fashionistas who hold the view that the commercial fashion industry makes an important contribution to individuals’ identity formation….others are cynics; as far as they are concerned the photograph and handbag are only worth whatever someone is willing to pay for them…All of these students are right in their own ways, and it is my job to help them to see each other’s point of view…’
Its an interesting question…not sure how I would answer it…somewhere between the aesthetes and the critical realists I think..where do you stand?
Reference
Soutter L. (2013) Why Art Photography? [Kindle Edition] Abingdon:Routledge
photo-graph 
vickiuvc
February 26, 2013
Bought the book, on my Kindle—not exactly holiday reading—but it’s loaded and I’ll be reading it whilst lounging round the pool in the sun [hopefully]! Will read it; it’s the weather I cannot predict!
Catherine
February 26, 2013
You can do a lot more with a handbag than you can with an art photograph. Feel it, feel the texture, smell it, put things into it. Much more useful than a photograph!!
Keith Greenough
February 26, 2013
You sound like a fashionista….
jsumb
February 26, 2013
I recommended smelling my prints and, I think, you all did – beats handbags any day!
Catherine
February 27, 2013
Yes – but I can’t go round holding prints and smelling them – people would think I was strange! It would appear much more normal if I kept holding my handbag and looking inside it.
vickiuvc
February 27, 2013
You never smelt one of my handbags! Love the smell of leather in the morning. And your prints!
Catherine
February 26, 2013
It depends on the handbag!! Actually I think I’m a bit of all of them depending on the beauty of either the handbag or the photograph Oh yes- there’s another thing – you can carry the handbag around with you!
Keith Greenough
February 26, 2013
Pragmatic fashionista with critical tendencies
Catherine
February 26, 2013
You’re brilliant – you’ve got me down to a ‘T’!
jsumb
February 26, 2013
In a previous life I would be a cynic, a professional response as a product and service provider, if that is what cynicism is defined as. Now I see more of the critical realist, knowing that art for arts sake is probably beyond me; but then I know that knowledge is only a temporary phase as yet unmediated by truths as yet unrevealed.
Keith Greenough
February 27, 2013
I see you someone who used to be a modernist with a new found zeal derived from conversion to critical realism……