As an avid lover and student of photography, I am a member of a few online photography forums where like minded shutterbugs share their work, experiences, problems and critiques. A recent inflammatory development on one such forum forced me to come out of aestivation and try writing something worthwhile…
It so happened that an undoubtedly talented young photographer decided to become, lets say, very “expressive” of his feelings about the other members on this forum. And by expressive I mean not merely strong criticism of others’ work, but also questioning their credibility, skill and experience!! Even the senior people were not spared. This had me thinking … Why exactly do we criticize? What do we achieve by it? Is there a right or wrong way to do it? And finally, how far should we go and where do we draw the line? Is it justified to pronounce a judgment when all that is expected is an opinion??
According to a popular online dictionary, the literal meaning of “criticism” is the practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works. Of course, my choice of definition OR the dictionary I consulted is open to criticism too!! ;-) But there’s another perspective to it, another definition to the word: the act or instance of making an unfavorable or severe judgment or comment. And I find this rather amusing - have people these days begun conforming more to the latter definition of the word rather than the former??
And if so, does it stem out of the fact that our modern society as a whole has become too vocal, prone to the shoot-first-think-later mindset and a devil-may-care attitude? Or is it that we use any and every chance we get to criticize as an opportunity to vent our personal frustration or repressed feelings? Have we, as a people, become less and less tolerant of others and more and more assertive of our own thinking?
In the true artistic sense, criticism should imply “constructive” criticism. Feel free to point out mistakes & shortcomings but the objective should be to help the person to improve his work and learn from his mistakes. And do it in a sensitive manner – due care needs to be taken not to dishearten or discourage a person from his work, the ultimate goal is to make the person improve his skills, not give up!
It always helps to keep in mind that no artist will ever intend to create something bad or substandard to begin with, the result of his efforts may or may not be pleasing to all, but the intentions are essentially good and honest. More importantly, every new creation is akin to one’s child – with a certain amount of emotional attachment and pride coming from creating it – so too harsh a critique is bound to hurt rather than help, and further, to be taken personally!
Often the more “senior” and experienced folk will take such criticisms in their stride, just a passing smile will be all that they deem necessary as a reaction, even if they really do feel bad about what has been said. The relatively “young” folk will usually be the ones to take up arms and launch a counter-attack, either to justify their motives (when they themselves have been criticized) or to defend their esteemed and less vociferous senior folk (even if the seniors themselves choose a mere smile to react to the implied/imagined insult). Which is good, since it usually spices up things somewhat & shakes up the relatively dormant members! ;-)
But the people who are prone to be hurt by a specially harsh critique are the beginners & novices, we all know how emotionally vulnerable an artist’s psyche can be, especially a budding one's. What they need is a helping hand, an honest friendly pointer to their mistakes and kind suggestions in mild language on how to avoid them. Not discouragement in any form.
As in all situations thrown up by life, it always helps to be polite and non-confrontational, both while criticizing someone and while accepting criticism … which, of course, is something that comes with time and experience. And last but not the least, before launching at a creation, it should help immensely if one takes a few moments to look at it from the perspective of the artist, take into consideration not merely his age and experience but also the intention behind his work, and not “how I would have done it”.
To end this first part with a popular quote:
“You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
So true!! :-)
“You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one.”
So true!! :-)
