RMM Loc: Suburban New York

One of the best photos I ever took was with an Argus C3 at Miami, probably the Seaquarium, before I got my first SLR. One of the staff stood on a platform leaning out over the water with a cigarette in his mouth. A dolphin jumped up from the water and took the cigarette from his mouth. Pure luck on the timing; the dolphin is in the air, gracefully curved, and you can actually see the cigarette in both of their mouths. 50 mm lens, f3.5 to f16, no built-in meter. I paid $45 I earned at my first job during high school.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

One of the best photos I ever took was with an Argus C3 at Miami, probably the Seaquarium, before I got my first SLR. One of the staff stood on a platform leaning out over the water with a cigarette in his mouth. A dolphin jumped up from the water and took the cigarette from his mouth. Pure luck on the timing; the dolphin is in the air, gracefully curved, and you can actually see the cigarette in both of their mouths. 50 mm lens, f3.5 to f16, no built-in meter. I paid $45 I earned at my first job during high school.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

First one is nice, but what's it of? Same with the third. What are they doing, and why do I care? The second one strikes me as the best just because I don't know what is so interesting to the three boys, and that holds my attention.

photodaddy Loc: Missouri

Thanks for the comments.

Fun2do

I used to look for what is great in a great painting. Read "7 Days in the Art World". Then read a few of the art pages in "The Wall Street Journal". I think you will come to the same conclusion I did. It is a matter of 1. Good publicity ( A PR person helps). 2. Good promotion(Andy Warhol). 3. Good press. 4. Who you know. 5. Prestigous buyers. Notice: It has nothing at all to do with how good the painting (photograph) really is. Also, if a Museum has one in its collection, that does help a great deal. And even better if more than one museum is collecting the work of that artist. A book about or even by the artist is very helpful, also. The more publicity, the better!

Lmarc Loc: Ojojona, Honduras

I think you're absolutely right! And if a well-known "art critic" gives a stamp of approval, you're IN!

But, again, I go with Groo: "Garbage, well wrapped, is still garbage!"

Warthog0 Loc: CG Florida

You are probably both right to an extent. E. Porter's work would have made him on their own, it certainly helped that Stieglitz exhibited Porter's work at the American Place Gallery, and that his color work was, for its time "avant gard" as most were still in the b&w mode.

architect Loc: Chattanooga

Eliot Porter's work stands by itself, but the fact it was chosen to be displayed helped a great deal. I know his work only from his published books, which "blew my mind", an appropriate expression for the time frame of his publications. For me, Eliot Porter is one of my 20th century photography masters.

Warthog0 Loc: CG Florida

Architect, I was fortunate to work for a Bank that had an extensive collection of his work. I befriended the Bank curator and she let me peruse through the portfolio. Through lots of cajoling, I got to have one hang “outside” my office for a while. I think that the colors remind me of some of my favorite cinematographers work, Akira Kurosawa. In one of his last efforts, Dreams a set of some wonderful vignettes, the attention to detail and color in all of them (the funeral march in the woods) was especially exquisite! In one of the vignettes, a garden/orchard scene that incorporates the typical Japanese “borrowed” background. The “gods” on the hillside with their costumes is stunning; the soft enveloping mist mutes the green hillside and at the same time intensified, and saturated the colors of the kimonos. I guess that is why I like your Valley photo, it has such a complex color scheme it evokes that visual feeling, once you “see” and “feel it”, you never forget it. AK became one of the leading figures in his field. AKs work in the movie Ran probably exemplifies his crowning achievement, a completely different genre and if you can get beyond the “martial” character, you are in for a treat, IMHO, of course.

ahzwizerd2 Loc: Willowbrook, ca

It would be good if I knew what the men were looking at
and the other pictures just don't tell a story. Sorry
good clear in focus pic thoe