An interesting example, but if I had created that exact image and submitted it to Sotheby's, they would have replied that is was just a snapshot without merit. Having already submitted images to Sotheby's, which were taken by a very well known photographer, I know exactly how that works. It has everything to do with provenance,the photographer's reputation, and previous sales history, and nothing to do with the image itself. The tricycle is a good example of that. It is after all . . . just a snapshot.
This is an interesting concept/dilemma.
We had a similar discussion in the gallery on a picture I liked when I said I actually respected it, more than perhaps liked it, and it was because at the side you can see other works by the author, and it showed an obvious attempt at a diversion in his "style". So the picture in question had it been presented by a newby I would have just dismissed. ( I'm not saying I'm any real art critic or any credentialed critic at all, I just critique partly because few do, and partly because I been doing photography for a while).
My reply to be called out on the fact of my dismissing a newby on a picture and accepting a seasoned person was the feeling I have of context. And it related to I guess, doing something on purpose. The seasoned photographer did this picture for reasons, and it stood up for those reasons, whereby if someone just shot something and said here's my picture and he thought it was pretty or had any merit, we could dismiss it because he didn't have the "credentials" to defend it.
Perhaps it's like legal argument. I hear your opinion, now argue why it has merit. Defend your choices.
Now the art world we all know operates on hype, hipness, dollar signs dancing in gallery owners eyes, hanger-oners, and loose women, but there is also the concept in most artistic endeavors of that something wasn't a fluke, and can be defended, and repeated.
In the publishing world and in the screenplay world if you turn in a piece of your work and they like it, they usually ask for more of what you've done. They want to see a pattern, to see that it's not a fluke, to see if you are worth their time and investment in the long haul. Not a one hit wonder and just lucked out this time.
That's what I mean by context. And when we try to decide if a picture, any picture can stand alone, as really we should expect it to, but that's not really how our life works we want context, motives, why did you do this, what were you thinking, and then we can invest our time or money or admiration in you if you have the right answer.
And this ties into the other thread of snapshots vs "serious" work in that a "serious" photographer can defend their choices. They did something on purpose.
The interesting thing in all of the babble though is to some people, a kids painting hanging on the fridge, can have far more importance to people than the Mona Lisa hanging in the living room.
