photography is not cutting edge. fml.

i was a photography major at fairfield university. i had little art history background. i took a history of photography class and an early renaissance class when i studied abroad in florence. before i got into stony brook i took two survey classes on art history something like "art from ancient times to the renaissance" and "baroque to contemporary." something like that. i knew nothing abut art theory, or many theorists, for that matter. but i knew donald kuspit. he is extremely prolific. i can't even tell you what he writes one it's more like what he doesn't write on/about. and that list is extremely slim. he is cynical and dogmatic and i love it. i am not this way at all, not in the least bit. but, in regards to art, it's refreshing to find someone that is. for kuspit there is black and white. there is art and there isn't art. and this interests me greately. in a time where everything is art how can something not be?

i'm talking to etherial. let me ground it. for kuspit, this is not art. or maybe not "good" art:

urs fischer's "holy"

scene from brian wood and ryan kelly's "local"

repin, "cossacks"

while i can understand his reasoning, the reasoning he has let us in on, (this is kitsch.) this is problematic for me. i want to give boundaries to art...but why? maybe this is helpful in the understanding of the history of art but at the present time, this is stifling when we should be promoting the critical consciousness. the mind. ideas. talking about ideas. working together. this is the best time.

so i wasn't surprised when the man i've looked up to the past few years said to me "greenberg and rosenberg? well, they didn't care about photography. it's not cutting edge. it's not where the advancement of art is." i died a little! i'm being dramatic. but i was upset. i know i know...it's just one person and in the grand scheme of things not everyone believes this. but, boy was i crushed. i'm finding that i have to defend my love of photography. and i didn't even know it needed my defense.

it's a bit discouraging. and it's a bit freeing. i finally know that i absolutely will write my thesis on photography. possibly my dissertation. and more likely gear it towards design and the history of design. my interests (comic books, furniture design, jewelry making, mosaics, pottery, stained glass, wallpaper, PHOTOGRAPHY) may not be fine art. but it's art and i have to make the best of this program in light of that.