This guy complained that there are ‘thousands of pieces shit’ photos on Flickr that prompted photog Alec Soth to ask, “Where are the great pictures on Flickr?” [found via Kottke] First of all, fuck Shore! Who made him the photo police? Why is he complaining? Is someone else’s photograph making him lose sleep, degrading his own work, degrading photography? Who ever said some should take photos and some shouldn’t?
Flickr is intended for the masses. If someone wants to take a blurry picture of their big toe on Flickr, she should be able to and have a Pro account. Reading some of the comments, I realized how comfortable some people are with their heads up their asses. These are the same dipshits who’ll leave a comment on a photo with “Decent picture, needs a little more balanced color and perspective. Can see a little bit of tree in the corner. Cropping suggested.”
Fuck you, you color-balancing, MFA-badge-wearing, piece of shit!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Nicole 09.24.07 at 1:03 pm
I’m sensing a bit of hostility here
Emon 09.24.07 at 1:08 pm
You bet!!
jkottke 09.24.07 at 1:56 pm
I don’t want to put words in Shore’s mouth but my interpretation of what he said is that the photographs that the Flickr community chooses as good (or, in Flickr’s parlance, most interesting):
http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
aren’t that good. They’re nice enough photos but cliches abound and there’s not a lot there that lights the soul afire, even though many of the photographers who end up on the interestingness page are trying to make good photos. Or perhaps he misunderstands the point of Flickr, that not everyone is trying to be a good photographer.
Either that or, like you said, the guy’s an elitist and he hates people clogging the web with their vacation photos.
Emon 09.24.07 at 4:42 pm
First, it’s an honor to find your comment on my blog, Jason. Thank you for dropping by!
I really hope I’m wrong in interpreting his words. I really hope he doesn’t represent the photographers who thinks Flickr has been diluted by ‘wannabes’. I’m sure there are lots of cliches in a lot of those photos, but for a non-photographer it makes no difference if someone followed the rule of thirds or used a Nikon D3. A viewer either likes a picture or doesn’t.
If Shore misunderstands the point of Flickr, he misunderstands the point of Internet.
Emon 09.25.07 at 12:45 am
The past 8 hours has changed a lot for me about this debate. Here is what I’ve to say now.
http://emonome.com/archives/755