A client visited the gallery recently to look at I Must Behave by Bruce Connew. She surprised me with a question about the validity of photography as an art form... "It is so reproducible." I was stunned - I didn't have a comeback. But what I should have said was "Everything is reproducible in the 21st century, but that certainly doesn't preclude the creation of great images in any media." And of course we all take photographs, but the real skill, the art, is in the production of the image as object - the texture, the quality of the image on the paper. This is the acid test - the translation from the screen to the wall.
And of course photography has its own tricks and knowledge and accidents and wonder that distinguish it from other media without detracting from its appeal. It can reference painting, it can reference its own traditions and practitioners - like any art form it does wherever it wants. I mean look at the image above by Bruce Connew. Gorgeous.
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