Choosing Criticism

I cringe at critiques.

When I was in art school, critique sessions were a given. It was expected that you sit in a room of 20 people with your photos up on a wall and let each classmate take a turn telling you what you should have done differently, maybe one or two of them liked your work. Then the professor would explain how you aren’t producing work at the level of a season professional even though you’re clearly here—at university—because you know you’re not a professional and are trying to learn.

I found art school critiques demoralizing more often than not. It wasn’t until my senior year in seminar II with Lynn Wright that I felt like I had good critiques. Not because I heard good things about my work—I heard both good and bad. She structured the feedback to start from the beginning of the project rather than just at the end. We helped each other hone our project themes, we shared contact sheets and drafts of images. I reshot my initial photos to better convey my intended story. At the end of the class, I had my favorite body of work to date. The critiques helped build my art up, not tear me down. The critiques were clearly and squarely on the photographs and ideas, not me personally.

What is good criticism?

Criticism can be praise, questions, or suggestions. Good criticism is more than just technical elements of photography. It is also able to separate out the critic’s personal beliefs from advice. When someone tells me “you should take this photo again like this…” and goes on to describe a completely different composition, POV, editing, lighting, well then they are missing the point. They are talking about how they would have taken the photo, not how my photograph is affecting them. For me, good criticism talks about a story, about how the image affects the viewer, what the audience understands as the message, how the elements tie into that story, not whether or not it’s technically perfect execution.

When to listen?

When I ask for feedback on my work, I like to set boundaries on what I want feedback on. If I ask for feedback on the mood conveyed in a photograph, that is what I want. An element can relate to the mood. For example, let’s say someone tells me they don’t like how warm I made the photo. I can follow and ask “why not? How do you see it affecting the mood of the photo?” If they tell me “well, the flower is supposed to be white, so having it so warm isn’t realistic,” that is bad criticism. I asked about the mood, how do you feel when you look at this picture? If their response was “I don’t like the warm temperature because I feel it makes the image nostalgic, but I don’t know what we’re supposed to be nostalgic about,” that is helpful. 

What happens after?

You have to decide if you want to take the criticism and apply it to your work or if you are going to leave it alone. Either way is fine. At the end of the day, it is your photography, your artwork. If you like the advice, take it. If you don’t, it might not be good advice. Does something get in the way of your message? Does something distract from your subject/intent? Are you in the ballpark or playing a different sport? Take the advice and re-shoot/change your photos. Or don’t and keep doing what you are doing.