P3D Re: P3D Re: PHOTO-3D digest 2398 Re: P3D The Value of Photography

["Peter Davis" <pd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Among other things, Mary Ann Sell (vmmasell@xxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> I have litterally thousands of VM Personal reels and I spend countless
> hours looking at them.  They are all logged individually -- separated by
> the photographers from whom I purchased them (if known) and each remains
> cataloged as done by the original photographer.  Some of these pictures
> are bad and others are worse but some are the best 3D images I've ever
> seen.  None are taken lightly or overlooked because of photographic
> defects because each represents a moment in time during the history of
> our planet that can never be repeated.  

This is an interesting point, and one which I think relates to the
other discussion about the value of personal photos.  I think that
before the advent of recording arts (photography, cinema, audio and
video recording, etc.), this view was unheard of.  When it took
specialized skills and a fair amount of effort to capture a moment,
there was a great deal of selectivity as to what did or did not get
painted, written down, etc.  There were still family pictures, but
they required commissioning a portrait painter, arranging for
sittings, etc.

Now, practically anybody can get a camera, tape recorder, video
camera, etc. and start clicking, shooting, taping, etc.  I'm not
saying there aren't those who are still highly selective about what
they record, but there are many many more who are pretty
indiscriminate about it.  And yes, each and every one of these
recordings captures a moment, and dialog, whatever that is unique in
history and will never happen again.  Does that make it art?

I don't know the answer, but I do think the question is interesting.
How this relates to the value of photo collections is that basically,
NOTHING has any intrinsic value.  Things are only valuable to people
who want them, and their value is essentially a measure of how much
they want them.  If no one wants someone's old photo collection, then
regardless of how painstakingly each shot was set up, or how beautiful
the results, they have no value.  Of course, it's always possible that
people would want such a collection if they knew about it, but this
doesn't mean that the possessors of such a collection are wrong to
give away (or throw away) such things.  Those of us who do value old
photos think it's a shame, but there have been countless such
treasures lost throughout the ages.  That actually adds to the value
of the ones that survive.

Sorry to ramble.  I guess I'm having a slow morning.

-pd


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                                    Peter Davis
                             http://world.std.com/~pd/

                             Here's looking at Euclid!


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