Cutting Edge

firecracker said:

They are so focused on what they've been doing and don't care about anything else, and I think that's what matters the most. And that's not something you can label.

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Great point. Although, you might be able to label it, there isn't a need. In my mind it is the quality of the invention that is important. I think artists throughout the last 150 years (or always) may have thought of themselves as cutting edge, breaking new ground or whatever the term of the day was. Part of it may be the excitement of seeing new horizons and feeling connection to the new process, view point, etc. I suspect that it is/was more or less ancillary to the work they were doing. It is the fashionistas that live for the identification of the work's placement.

Don, hit it again for me when he said:


I would remove the label Traditional or replace it with creative or good. Or I don’t know. It seems that there is room in this world to see things new or tell an old story with a fresh voice and that in and of itself puts it at the edge

df cardwell said:

The object ofTraditional Photography is to make a picture with fresh eyes and emotion, every time.

That pushes the boundaries every day.

The only way to do that is to look, and see, and not make any picture refer to a standard or trend or school.

Conventional Photography, on the other hand, is ALL ABOUT doing what is right, expected, and marketable.

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I think you're arguing semantics now. Traditional is exactly what the word means:

traditional. adjective:
Conforming to established practice or standards.

Traditional is not a pejorative word, neither is the phrase cutting edge I will agree that conventional in this context is pejorative

-Bob

I agree, the denotative definition for traditional and conventional are the same.

Perhaps the connotative has taken one to mean one thing and not the other but to me they are the same.

I think cutting edge is a marketing term.
So is "important" and "inspirational" and "new" and "creative" and "timely" and .........


Michael

Wow, such intelligent well thought out responses.

I have never cared for conventions or lables. I personally shoot what emotionally strikes me. I want to record many things before they are gobbled up in mass urbanization. Cutting edge is not a concious thought when I go shooting. After the fact how I print I might do some really wild things. I shot a series of staircases on one negative (multi image) and for the presentation in a class I printed many of the same image, only cut out parts and then folded them to look like the actual stair case. They were 3 D extentions of a flat image. I was praised for being cutting edge and thinking outside of the box. I did it because the teacher hated photos that to him were the same flat boring things. Maybe it pushed me to consider different presentations? I don't know. Did I keep it? No it made it to the nearest round file after the class.

I feel there is too much emphasis by some to distinguish good photography with only what they feel is cutting edge. It is a very personal thing the relationship of the viewer to the photograph in front of them. It is how the viewer internalizes that image that to me is most important. Some will like it, some won't it is what makes us all different. We all like various things, and they are not all the same.

I want to thank you all for responding. It has helped me immensely.

When I shoot for myself (art?) I shoot for myself and wonder if others will see it similarly. I never shoot thinking "I'll bet people will think this is..." I do shoot with who 'we' are or what 'we' think we are in mind. I also use the viewership as a measure of how my message comes across, and at times a validation of success and or failure.

I would like to think that the people Dave, Don, Firecracker and the 1% Jorge are refereing to are people who have a similar perception or approach.

mrcallow said:

When I shoot for myself (art?) I shoot for myself and wonder if others will see it similarly. I never shoot thinking "I'll bet people will think this is..." I do shoot with who 'we' are or what 'we' think we are in mind. I also use the viewership as a measure of how my message comes across, and at times a validation of success and or failure.

I would like to think that the people Dave, Don, Firecracker and the 1% Jorge are refereing to are people who have a similar perception or approach.

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I'm kind of a theory head, but lately I've stopped reading the books I was reading in the last several years for some reason. Instead, when I hold my camera before taking pictures, I do some thinking: I want to take a good and/or great picture because (most of the time) I know there's no second chance. And it's true there are so many moments, beautiful moments with stunning experiences in the past that I didn't capture on film. I can recall those moments very vividly and talk about them as much as I want to, but I don't have any pictures from those cherished stories! Since I don't want to regret about this any more, I think ahead of what I have to do and will be doing with it everytime I go out and take pictures.

Sorry this hardly has anything to do with the original topic here.

"Cutting edge" is not equivalent to good, although "cutting edge" work can be good.

An edge "cuts" when it separates one part from another. Something is only "cutting edge", when it marks a distinction between what follows, and what has gone before. If, someday, many people say something like "the photography Matt King did in 2005 changed the photographic landscape" then I guess I will have been working at the "cutting edge" during this year (there is absolutely no chance of this occuring).

You can only truly tell if something is cutting edge, if you have some perspective on it.

If you are in the midst of doing "cutting edge" work, you are probably too close to it to be able to tell.

My suggestion to anyone seeking to do "cutting edge" work - use your own impression of discovery and inspiration and wonder to measure whether your work is successful. If there are others whose judgment and perception and knowledge is respected by you, ask them as well. Leave it to strangers with perspectives different from yours to worry about whether your work is "cutting edge".

For a description of how art concepts are created and turned into schools and isms and then turned into commerce read The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe
JackB

For me the best in cutting edge photography is being done by film editors in Hollywood.