The future of handbag photography

Many of us already only care about the contents not the brand. After our collapse, there will be more of us. But cheap imitation perfumes will never leave us.

Let's face it, though, in a final crunch artists themselves must scrounge for a living, and set art aside.

Comment posted by Philip on November 6, 2008

My guess would be that for anyone involved in visual arts/photogaphy the consequences of a burst economic bubble are most likely to be negative. Yes, it will probably lead to a long overdue re-assessment of what and who has more lasting value and significance, but the term 'struggling artist' will have more than just symbolic meaning as the galleries close and magazines tighten their already tight budgets. Think 'starving artist.' Face it, art thrives on excess.

Comment posted by nigel amies on November 6, 2008

One of the things I’ve recently noticed is that although China is not that a rich country, Chinese people are among the most potential consumers in expensive things…or luxuries. I saw great passion people show on luxuries and brands and the whole consumptionism stuff. So I started a group on flickr, and called it,

Project LV
http://www.flickr.com/groups/projectlv/

Comment posted by Zhao on November 6, 2008

Some days ago, a famous Spanish photographer ( Whose work I hate) in a portfolio visualization said that to be artistically respected you have to drive always in the same direction, destroy or kidnap your early work, make your prints as big as possible and don't be accesible.

This can be a joke but I can sure you it is not one.

I think We can find a level where the contents and the aesthetics will meet them. One big dog shit taken with an holga printed in a 2m x 2m c-print is still being a dog shit, and a marvellous decisive street shot moment printed in a poor inkjet printer is a pity.

Anyway, many of us are aware of the loss of prestige the PHOTOGRAPHY is suffering, I think the photographer is less respected today than before.

May be it is not that wrong to follow this photographer recommendations (not all them) in order to obtain respect and in order to build a wall between professionals and amateurs. Just like Prada or Gucci make, if We cannont make something better the way is to make it more expensive and less affordable.

Perhaps is all about the money and We have to wait for the crisis final to obtain the clues of what is really happening with photography.

Comment posted by sergio jaén lara on November 6, 2008

some times i wonder of which air do most of the people who chip-chap about all this, clinging like frenzied chimps to a singule vine, breathe upon...it still reminds me often, of all that psyched-up reved-out shit that we all bitch-slapped each other with on the high school bus going to an Away game....

just a quick hand check, without fricking Google, can anyone sing upon the work of Joachin Patenier...? (what century? school of painting, who were his friends, name a painting, etc)...ok, pick a name, pick a continent, pick a genre....can we, any of speak, speak upon that which came before us with any kind of certainty....and will you be rememember....and in how long will it take you, your life, your name, your work, the curve of the bend of your jaw, the sound of your tired voice over a meal, the particular smell of your particular skin after washing, the sound of your walk along wooden floorboards in the morning....who shall remember that...

and we still fucking waste our time, especially in the rarefied west, over this....

the ground into which my mother and father will be earthed, now that fucking breaks my heart and is something that tempers the watch-key of my days...

the becoming and the leaving....what else really is there....

running to kiss my son before i tarry out into the world...

the rest, dross....

bob

Comment posted by Bob Black on November 6, 2008

Sorry Bob, untangling your beautiful prose has tied me into a knot. Are you against the endless talk of the credit crunch, the endless talk of whether branding will evaporate, against the commentors who try to clip clap their petty views, or, none of the above.

Comment posted by Philip on November 6, 2008

Philip :))

sorry for the murking play of words...

i'm never against talk :))))..only it never ceases to amaze me that the art world (a huge part of my life) continues to define itself by small chatter ;)))...i remember the same chat when i was finishing school when the 80's art word, well, um, fill in the blank ;))))

i mean to suggest that folk worried about all this art world silliness or those who've confinened their lives to the grand pronouncement and all those prognostications still seem to dwaddle on, seem to me pretty much the same ole same ole...and it will vanish too, both the good and the bad of the art world, so why is our persistant chatter increasing and the substance seem less and less...

the concern of ourselves and out "brand" (that is, human identity i guess ;))) ), aint at all about the often lamentably empty art world speak....

i guess as a member of that posse, i feel increasingly uninterested in the language or the focus of what meats out over martini bars, gallery planks and even along the trade rags i once reverishly devoured ;))))...

i guess it's more about the frustration i often feel about the substance of the matter....

by the way, im always tied into a knot too ;)))......

in other words: for them, i'd say: speak to me about whether or not the closing of all the galleries in Chelsea (just as the opening of all of them 15 years ago) will alter the substance of why it is we still sing out against the darkness in our telling of things and in the making of things....the big news, then: what part of these fabulous cities are going to be genetrified next ;))))

cheers
bob

Comment posted by Bob Black on November 6, 2008

Philip :))

sorry for the murking play of words...

i'm never against talk :))))..only it never ceases to amaze me that the art world (a huge part of my life) continues to define itself by small chatter ;)))...i remember the same chat when i was finishing school when the 80's art word, well, um, fill in the blank ;))))

i mean to suggest that folk worried about all this art world silliness or those who've confinened their lives to the grand pronouncement and all those prognostications still seem to dwaddle on, seem to me pretty much the same ole same ole...and it will vanish too, both the good and the bad of the art world, so why is our persistant chatter increasing and the substance seem less and less...

the concern of ourselves and out "brand" (that is, human identity i guess ;))) ), aint at all about the often lamentably empty art world speak....

i guess as a member of that posse, i feel increasingly uninterested in the language or the focus of what meats out over martini bars, gallery planks and even along the trade rags i once reverishly devoured ;))))...

i guess it's more about the frustration i often feel about the substance of the matter....

by the way, im always tied into a knot too ;)))......

in other words: for them, i'd say: speak to me about whether or not the closing of all the galleries in Chelsea (just as the opening of all of them 15 years ago) will alter the substance of why it is we still sing out against the darkness in our telling of things and in the making of things....the big news, then: what part of these fabulous cities are going to be genetrified next ;))))

cheers
bob

Comment posted by Bob Black on November 6, 2008

i think for the most part creative people who need to create will be unaffected by any credit crunch - as a shoe string budget is always a shoe string budget..
some photographers will be, though, and so onwards photography develops into a rich game where those with the ability take the work for less and less moula... perhaps..

i've yet to meet a creative person who i respect that is concerned with much more than sustaining their modest lifestyle.. nights around a portable heater eating pepper on toast as a crappy stereo plays a backtrack to idle conversation is, astonishingly, rather a palatial way to live.

as *major art buyers* allegedly panic buy branded 'art' at inflated prices and bid against themselves.. all to uphold the value of their own collection.. dominate the market to the point that the Office of Fair Trading investigates them or have an undeservedly acute effect upon which style of modern art is in vogue at the tate, i can't see my mate Brian, who is absorbed by the subtleties of colour dynamics, being remotely bothered,,,

the idiosyncratic artist who does not serve the financial sector or jim and jane (who need something blue to go with the sofa), will remain as they have i think.. struggling or starving has no bearing on their compulsion since the motivation for what they do is somewhat more mysterious.

Comment posted by david bowen on November 6, 2008

Hey Bob,
This should cheer you up... an interview with my old teach Dave:
http://tinyurl.com/2us3vp

Comment posted by mike on November 6, 2008

Mike!!!! :))))))

that's the cat's MEOOOOOW! :))))...funny, i read the air guitar book when i was in la, had no idea...and that 1st quote, when damn, that's what got me into art ;))))) (the _)____), fill in the blank ;)) )....

if only there were more....though serra not being funny, kinda bummed me out ;))))...

hugs, see u in 2009!...

hello from M!
b

Comment posted by Bob Black on November 6, 2008

Alec,
We've seen a lot of large scale color work for a long time. Will this shift? I don't know, but I would rather see really good photograps and not just a bunch of big high quality prints with some nice frame, but with lacking content.. What I don't like about galleries is that they seem so afraid of going with something new (or old). They tend to show artists that are very close to each other in style and content. The quote you wrote about the key to success in the art world is sooo true!

Comment posted by Martin Brink on November 6, 2008

One of the things I’ve recently noticed is that although China is not that a rich country, Chinese people are among the most potential consumers in expensive things…or luxuries.

I dont agree, chinese is richer and richer, I think it will bie best consumers in the world

Comment posted by Tara zhang on November 9, 2008

For the last few years the art world has felt like a veritable Sodom in its decadence - a friend who works at a gallery came back from Basle reeling from the realisation that her job was best described as 'Helping oligarchs avoid tax'. Another, (who makes lamps that sell at auction for £10,000) described it as 'a racecourse where no-one can tell the difference between a thoroughbred and a fat little gymkhana pony, and it only takes one millionaire with an art adviser to put all their money on the gymkhana pony and it automatically gets the cup, even if it limps in last.'

There are a lot of people feeling very cheerful about the current collapse of art value, even those who are likely to suffer themselves. This is partly snobbery, a not very commendable distaste for the vulgarity of money. But it has also been because of the number of fat little gymkhana ponies we've had to watch getting over fences.

There have been other art bubbles before that have also popped. Does it have a beneficial effect? I can't really remember as I was too young for the last one. The early nineties seemed like a pretty exciting time in art, possibly the result of being very young and never having seen anything before. Or possibly because it was really exciting.

At the very least it should get rid of the scenesters and the people who are buying art as an alternative to investing in derivatives. For a few years. Along with lots of really good people of course. But that's the nature of gambling - and at bottom participating in the art world is a gamble. You have to accept that sometimes you lose. The only real conclusion any of us can draw from the events of the last week is that we should have invested in Malevich, But we all knew that already, right?

Comment posted by Amy de Wit on November 10, 2008