... and the 40th is covered by the fat guy's mouth.

I don't generally make this sort of pronouncements about "art", but it's been bugging me in a less specific way and this morning it moved to specific.

Enough with tits as art.

It seems that photography, lately is either tits or subway tunnels. By which I mean sort of urban grunge. Looking at one of B.'s expensive photography magazines, I'm reminded of the term (via someone I used to know) used in the military for porn - generally referred to as "fuck books". I thought, this is supposed to be about photography but it's really a fuck book.

I'm not a prude, naked people can be pretty, but I'm not really finding nude chicks inspiring. First, they are all beanpoles. If it didn't just all look the same it might be more interesting. And I have a theory that photographers who see themselves as arty on Flickr do nudes to get traffic. I'm BORED with it. Get over the T&A. bored bored bored. I think it's a cop out to taking photos that will be SO GOOD that everyone can't help but look at them. With no tits involved. It's lazy, it's a wank. Whatever.

I think art should be more than a wank.

There are certainly photographers that have done nudes well. Interestingly. Mapplethorpe, etc. But they are good enough that you are not looking at the tits. The form of the body makes magic. It tells a story. What most people can't do with their nudes is tell a story. Most people can't do that anyway with their photography. I think, personally, that the focus of creating things, be it photos, paintings, or anything that you hope that someone would hang on their wall or look at for more than a nanosecond at a gallery or in a home is to tell a story. Credenzas have more story to them than just-another-tit-shot.

Photography of people is hard in one way, it takes a good eye to capture the moment that defines someone. One of the portrait photographers I like is Elsa Dorfman and her gianto polaroid. The photos are some sort of crazy but wonderful extension of the Sears potrait studio. And I don't mean that in a bad way at ALL. She captures something in different way. She's able to tell a story.

sigh. Just make some effort people. Tell a story. Make art that says something. If you can really do that and throw in a tit or two, more power to you.