Photoglut - Kessels

[PierreVandevenne]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15756616

[Michael West]

The idea of printing one million photographs does not appeal to me at all. I have to wonder whether he did all of the printing or sent it out to some huge facility.

[Ray]

I too wonder if this project was just a way of generating work for those in the photographic printing industry?  My widest format printer is the 600mm Epson 7600. If one assumes these one million photos are postcard size, ie. 150x100mm, then a quick calculation tells me I would need about 834 rolls of paper each 30 metres long to make those 1 million prints, not to mention the huge quantity of ink.

If I were to use Epson’s widest format printer, the 64" GS6000, I would need only 308.5 rolls to make 1 million postcard-size prints, assuming the rolls for the GS6000 are also 30 metres long.

It all sounds very crazy to me.

On the other hand maybe someone out there had some obsolete printing equipment and a pile of substandard ink and paper for which there was no longer a commercial use and which was therefore destined for the rubbish dump..

[RSL]

You guys just don't understand. This is FINE ART. In the long run the guy probably will make a bundle out of it. Look at the vandalism Christo and Jeanne-Claude have committed in the name of FINE ART. And now they're vandalizing the beautiful Arkansas river in MY! Colorado -- with permission from the BLM. But this is FINE ART. All of us lesser folks just have to stand back and gape in awe at the brilliance of this kind of thing.

[Rob C]

It's beautiful, isn't it, that sense of awe and respect that one finds surging up in the soul at the very mention of these fine things!

Rob C

[fredjeang]

You guys just don't understand. This is FINE ART. In the long run the guy probably will make a bundle out of it. Look at the vandalism Christo and Jeanne-Claude have committed in the name of FINE ART. And now they're vandalizing the beautiful Arkansas river in MY! Colorado -- with permission from the BLM. But this is FINE ART. All of us lesser folks just have to stand back and gape in awe at the brilliance of this kind of thing.

Russ, I think it's unfair that those kind of stuff may be associated to fine art. Because then, what about the sordid and morbid cult of the hugly of most Magnum shooters? So we could also say "in the name of Street, reportage etc..."
And those Magnum photographers are also recognized as the crème de la crème of social reportage.
Or what about those war photographers that end to managed to treat war with such frivolity like if it was a fashion show?
IMO, in each genre those kind of production occur, not only in fine art.

[Rob C]

Russ, I think it's unfair that those kind of stuff may be associated to fine art. Because then, what about the sordid and morbid cult of the hugly of most Magnum shooters? So we could also say "in the name of Street, reportage etc..."
And those Magnum photographers are also recognized as the crème de la crème of social reportage.
Or what about those war photographers that end to managed to treat war with such frivolity like if it was a fashion show?
IMO, in each genre those kind of production occur, not only in fine art.

This could well be a reflection of the unease or even, possibly, the relative youthfulness of photography as medium.

I can imagine that unlike other graphics which have historical links to early mankind, the photo world is a new baby and, consequently, open to all the oooing and aaahing that greets each new arrival. In other words, we don't quite know what to make of it in an overall sense - how or where to place it in context with everything else out there.

Without more clear expectations achieved over a longer time-scale, it's open to all comers and all manner of use/abuse.

Rob C