What Coleman did for us, and certainly for myself as a future photo educator and curator, was to instruct us by example never to ignore the forces that propel the visibility and inclusion of certain photographers over others. […]
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Follow me on Mastodon:
@adcoleman@hcommons.social
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“Octave of Prayer” represents a man, once a respected and vital teacher and philosopher in photography, coming to believe his own legend and making himself into an institution. This auto-deification is a sad and dangerous turn of events. […] In other words, boys and girls, that ain’t Aperture you’re holding, it’s a copy of The Watchtower, intended to make converts willing to follow a man who can simultaneously assert his own “natural talent for camera” and lack of egotism, who can claim, in so many words, that he and his followers are God’s gift to photography. […] I believe that Minor White’s group show and catalog “Octave of Prayer” is an insidious insult to all photographers, not only to those whose work is included therein but also to anyone trying to sculpt an idea in silver. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014All content of this publication is © copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 by A. D. Coleman unless otherwise noted. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without prior written permission. All photos copyright by the individual photographers. "Fair use" allows quotation of excerpts of textual material from this site for educational and other noncommercial purposes.
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Cabin Fever 2018: Bits & Pieces (b)
Among the enduring mysteries of my professional life (e.g., How do you make a decent living at this? and Who’s the good critic?) I have counted what seemed to me the adamant refusal of French scholars to use my chosen nom de plume, substituting instead my first and sometimes second names, one or another of them (or both) possibly misspelled. […]