Art Critique and Community by Anna Cox and Tony Marquez
Art critique and criticism is an academic practice to promote growth of an artist. As we discussed here , criticism can take many forms but the facet we are interested in is the side that pushes us positively as artists. In 2013, we want to begin to build a forum that allows artists the freedom and opportunity to have their work critiqued. We are carefully planning how we should go about this to make it a worthwhile, healthy avenue for artists to get feedback on their work. The purpose of critique is to allow the artist a “safe” place where they can receive a honest look at their work. Respect for the artist and the work is understood before the critique even begins. Respect is something that has to be maintained for this kind of feature to work for the community.
Tony and I are planning a monthly multi genre critique forum but we cannot do this without community involvement. We are not only looking for photos for the critique but also for people who would like to be a part of a panel that discusses the submitted photos.
What we want to convey to the mobile community most is that critique and criticism isn’t a negative practice. It is simply an open and honest conversation about a work of art.
A critique of the work will touch on many different aspects. Critique is an objective practice. Meaning it is based on fact, not the viewer’s opinion. For these critiques we will be using a classic step by step breakdown: Description, Analysis, Interpretation, Judgment
A Description could contain to the answers to the following questions:
What do you see when you look at the photograph?
What is the context?
Are there situational elements that provide clues?
What is the title? Does that provide a deeper meaning?
An analysis could address:
Use of value
Lines
Negative space
Subject matter
Framing
Lighting
Editing techniques
The interpretation will use the information gathered from the first two steps to asses the message and emotion the photograph gives us as the viewer.
The judgement sounds scary but it isn’t. It is simply looking back at all the questions answered about a work to determine whether what the photographer was saying came through clearly. Was the work successful? Did the photographer utilize every thing they possibly could to make their work have more of an impact? If not, what could they have done differently?
We would like to have critiques in the following genres: minimalism, portraits, street, landscape, mobile artistry, architecture, and still life. We are also looking for people who shoot within these genres to be part of the panels that critique submitted photographs.
If you would like to be a part of this project send us an email to juxtcritique@gmail.com
Do you have some ideas in how we can make this successful? Send us your ideas also! We want this to be a community project.
First genre will be architecture and will be posted next month. If you have photos you would like critiqued send them to the email address above.
See you there!
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I think this is a very good idea Anna and Tony. Let me add that instead of just our views, it would be good to hear a few words from the photographer submitting the piece for critique as to their intent and the message they wanted to express with teh photograph submitted.
It is not all about the technical aspects of the photograph but also about the message.
Agree! Ill add it to the list. Thank you friend!
This sounds great. Good crits are invaluable.
So much to learn from this. Feel that this is what I miss most when people comment. It helps me figure out which are my strengths and weaknesses.
thanks for starting this project!
I’m very interested in this. Practice and growth are a lot on my mind these days