Jim's SECRET WEAPON Lens!

[Greg Lockrey]

Cow crap.

You can look at blurry, out of focus images, with half an old lens, and call it fine art if you want.

I'll call it like I see it. I think Jim Galli is making crappy pictures with this "secret weapon lens", and his reputation is such that it's gained not merely acceptance, but critical acclaim. I also think that if he had posted these images under a pseudonym, with the caption, "Hi, my name is Jimmy Newbie, I'm 17 years old and just getting started, what do you think of my pictures with my homemade lens...." Then the resulting comments would have been.....different.


Anti pictoralism has been around in one way for a long time, and that doesn't make it suck any less, no matter how many people jump on the bandwagon when experiences it's recurring vogue.

If bad equipment can only make bad photographs better for you....great. Get your lomography on and power to you.

But it's still crap.

P.S. I'm still at the near end of the learning curve in photography, but by all means, if I master my craft, and then I get bored with the tedium of trying to make excellent images in a technically excellent way, I expect I'll simply take up another art form and start from scratch.

What I hope I won't do, is start making crap, and calling it art, while all my buddies pat me on the back enthusiastically. I hope I'll have at least one genuinely good friend who'll look me in the eye and say, "Hey buddy, I'm not sure where you think you were going with that....but you ended up in Craptown, Crapsylvannia, and I think you should back that up and go back where you came from".


And finally, to answer your first question directly, Asher Kelman, I'm a fan of well compsed images made in a technically excellent manner. I'm a fan of realism, or hyper-realism if possible.

It's why I have taken up photography rather than watercolours or pottery.

Ah man, you don't know how to have fun, do you?

I guess you haven't gotten far enough in your studies to take any experimental photography classes yet at your school. It's probably reserved for an Honors Level curriculum anyway.

BTW, everyone knows that watercolorists and potteriers make more money than photogs.

[Ole Tjugen]

"Anti-pictorialism" - wouldn't that be the f64 group? After all that was started as a reaction to pictorialism...

In that case, what Jim Galli and others are doing might better be called anti-anti-pictorialism.

[Gary Tarbert]

bamboo #3 & spidergrass are top class IMHO all the others i like & the only one that doesn't ring by bell at all is the lightfitting.
But overall a splendid body of work and i enjoyed viewing thank you Jim

[gbogatko]

George number 4 is transcendent.

Wow. Now that gives me hope!! Thanks

GB

[ljb0904]

Makes me wanna go out and shoot B+W :-)