Metaphor

part Tom Hines interview by Julia Vangsnes in Dazed digital.

"DD: These days...when everyone has cameras on their cell phones... I wonder...what really makes a photo interesting, what makes a photographer?
TH: Aside from mystical traits, talents and other x-factors, one thing stands out: contextual ambition. I think about Jackson Pollock slinging paint around like a beast but having the wherewithal to declare his work Art in the proper context. There is a quote, probably false--I can't find it online--often attributed to Pollock as a way of describing his hubris. It goes something like, "there are only three artists: Picasso, Matisse and Pollock." The ego needs to be hyperbolic like that sometimes. That's probably what makes a photographer. I mean, I built the obligatory darkroom when I was kid, worked in it so long my skin literally fell off from chemical exposure, I learned about photography during this time. I wasn't a photographer, nor was I anything else. I was just curious and incautious. I went through all the motions. I've since come a long way. I've experimented with every medium I've wanted to experience, and I'm comfortable declaring myself a photographer in relation to other endeavours. It was the declaration that was missing before. And, yeah…maybe hubris, too. As to what makes a photo interesting, I can offer a metaphor. All my peers are creative professionals with nuanced perspectives. A group of us were hanging out the other night, talking about what's good. I found a metaphor that might describe our rarefied circle, a food metaphor. In food, sweetness represents caloric abundance. Everyone must like sweets, it's a biological imperative. In science experiments, rats are given sweetened water which they'll consume until their tongues are swollen. There is no imperative to consume bitterness. Bitterness represents poison to an animal. When I eat bitter greens and enjoy it, that's my intellect at work. Believe me; I don't need my intellect to enjoy sweetness, my body lights up in pleasure. I like to think of some photographs as being sweet chocolate bars and some as being bitter greens. Chocolate bar photos are extremely interesting, but one's intellect could be resistant to them. I know all too well, many of my peers will only declare respect for bitter greens photos. Still, both kinds are interesting, just in different ways."

http://dazeddigital.com/Photography/article/1488/1/Tom_Hines_Eye_of_a_Tiger