On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 15:19:40 -0500, "Dennis O'Connor" <doconnor@chartermi.net> wrote:

>One needs to master the medium before breaking the rules... Picasso, for

>example, could draw and paint like a Michangelo, and did for a number of

>years, before he went out and broke the rules of perspective, becoming

>Picasso... The shortest route for any of us to become a master of

>photography is to first, master the medium...

>

>Denny

I have never "subscribed" to this view...;-)

Train a "hack" to be a hack, and hack work

is the most likely outcome (with vision likely

suppressed in the rote); encourage "vision"

(even at the expense of technique), and the

possible outcome is art; I would rather listen

to someone who understands the music play the

piano badly then listen to technically superb

"playing of the notes" by someone with no

sense of the music (though when both appropriate

technique and great vision are present, WOW!!!).

Technique can be learned/improved-with-time

to meet the needs of vision; vision is fragile

and needs immediate attention. I used to teach

photography, and it always amazed me what a

high percentage of students "had something to

say" photographically - though "common sense"

tells us few become artists. Could this be

due to our insistence upon learning

standard technique before we have something

solid for it to serve, and emptiness is the

result?