Re: Thoughts on Judging

[P3D Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

P3D Erlys Jedlicka wrote:

> Dr. "F" tried to explain the following: The only way photography becomes
> art is if it shows a truth in a unique way. Stereo make a scene look more
> realistic than an ordinary photograph does. Therefore stereo tends
> to veer away from art rather than move toward it. The more realistic a
> scene is rendered, the less it shows a unique point of view.

My wife and I were just discussing this yesterday, while riding home
from the Stereo New England meeting (excellent meeting, BTW).

We're with you and Dr. "F." I have expressed similar views before on
this list, and as you can imagine it is not one which gets lots of
support. For the very reason you articulate so well, I think stereo
photography is less well suited to abstract artistic expression than
plano. The extra dose of reality stereo provides works against moving
the viewer into a more abstract rhelm. It's kinda why many people feel
that B & W is a more easily artistic medium than color, painting more
easily artistic than photography, radio more easily artistic a medium
than television. The fewer the reality/sensory cues, the greater the
ambiguity, and the more easily the audience is moved into the abstract.

An interesting test of this comes with the book "3D Museum" from Japan,
which some list members have seen. I briefly saw Paul Wing's copy
yesterday. In this remarkable book, well-known painted masterpieces have
been brilliantly manipulated via computer (probably with a
photoshop-like program) to produce stereo pairs and planes of depth
which the modern-day artist feels are appropriate to the original
paintings. While the results are at first visually stunning and
technically awesome, I think that the originals make for much finer
"art" than the stereos...


> In subsequent judgings I learned from Dr. "F" that it was okay to be out
> of sync, okay to have my own opinion of what I liked in stereo, okay to
> trust my own judgement.


Exactly. I love seeing successful stereo shots taken with liberal
"dutch," (a la Jon Golden), and flagrent and successful violations of
the conventional limits of on-film deviation (I think John B?), use of
retinal rivalry for effect (just saw a nice medium format example from
Greg Erker), stereos with out-of-focus backgrounds, etc.

Please DO NOT take this as a statement that artistic stereo photography
is not possible. Of course it is, and I'm sure that most of us have seen
wonderful examples. I am simply saying that the inherent reality of the
medium works against "art" and favors the depiction of photographic
"reality."

Erlys, it's good to hear from a kindred spirit!


Eric G.


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