Do you think Monet would have ...
banned all other painters from the scenes he painted? I don't think so. Though the Impressionists departed from the more classical art forms, they did not feel they had to put down each other in order to gain recognition as artists. True artists have confidence in what they do even when they are not publicly recognized or enriched for their visionary works. In fact, Van Gogh never sold a painting in his lifetime; his canvases were used for patches! But now his pictures go for millions. (So you get the juxtaposition of this post to the one just before --- evidence of my own family trip to the met, though we spent less time on Impressionists this visit than we have in the past)
But anyway, what made me think of this is my own visit to someone who declares himself an "artist." According to him, no other photographers can ever do what he can. Look, I have no problem with the arrogance, well, at least not much. What really gets me is the twist of logic that allows him to declare himself unparalleled but to insist that if he would deign to advertise in my magazine, I must banish all lesser photographers, which, of course, means all of them on the basis of his estimation. Now that makes a lot of business sense for me to take on one ad from Mr. Ego and forever foreswear all other, including those who have been regular advertisers for years. As I tell him, I cannot assume to know which photographer is technically not as good as another, but so long as I don't know them to be dishonest or otherwise unacceptable for people to hire, they have a right to advertise themselves in my publication. As he admits himself, he is beyond the budget of quite a lot of people. I have never claimed that Kallah Magazime is targeted only the affluent as some magazines claim.
Now here's the greater irony. He wants me to commit to his standards for quality, while he cares not for the quality I strive for in writing. He unveiled the ad he was so proud of having put together for a directory, which was riddled with punctuation mistakes -- at least 4 missing apostophes, a misplaced comma (despite his argument for the pause, it is not technically correct), and a very awkwardly contstructed sentence. I won't even get into the tastelessness of attacking others in his profession. It seems he cannot cast himself in a postiive light without throwing a dark shadow on others.
But anyway, what made me think of this is my own visit to someone who declares himself an "artist." According to him, no other photographers can ever do what he can. Look, I have no problem with the arrogance, well, at least not much. What really gets me is the twist of logic that allows him to declare himself unparalleled but to insist that if he would deign to advertise in my magazine, I must banish all lesser photographers, which, of course, means all of them on the basis of his estimation. Now that makes a lot of business sense for me to take on one ad from Mr. Ego and forever foreswear all other, including those who have been regular advertisers for years. As I tell him, I cannot assume to know which photographer is technically not as good as another, but so long as I don't know them to be dishonest or otherwise unacceptable for people to hire, they have a right to advertise themselves in my publication. As he admits himself, he is beyond the budget of quite a lot of people. I have never claimed that Kallah Magazime is targeted only the affluent as some magazines claim.
Now here's the greater irony. He wants me to commit to his standards for quality, while he cares not for the quality I strive for in writing. He unveiled the ad he was so proud of having put together for a directory, which was riddled with punctuation mistakes -- at least 4 missing apostophes, a misplaced comma (despite his argument for the pause, it is not technically correct), and a very awkwardly contstructed sentence. I won't even get into the tastelessness of attacking others in his profession. It seems he cannot cast himself in a postiive light without throwing a dark shadow on others.
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