About Critique | David duChemin

Popular photography education is awash in the idea that critique is helpful. God knows there are more than enough voices out there willing to give it, solicited or otherwise. And while I think it can be helpful, it often falls wildly short on the ability to provide that critique in a positive way. Nor, I think, does it give any guidance on how to choose those voices, or even what to do with that critique, once given. I believe that getting honest critique, as hard as it is to both find it, and listen to it, is important in our growth as both craftsmen and artists. Taken from the right source, it helps us see our blind spots, which are by their very nature, almost impossible to see ourselves, like the bald spot at the back of my head, which took me years to see myself, and left me horrified that no one had told me. This was back when I had enough hair at the top to create the illusion. Again, from the right source, that criticism of our work can help us see where we’re heading and where that route might lead us to exciting new possibilities. Critique culture has failed us, and most of all the beginners. It has held up moving, unattainable targets, encouraged individuals towards homogeny, and – perhaps most damaging of all, it has failed to take into account the vision of the artist. Picasso, Monet, Degas, Warhol – and almost any other artist of renown – would have been eviscerated by modern critique culture………

Source: davidduchemin.com