http://www.russarmstrong.com/commentary/ Copyright 2008 Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:19:54 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.15 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Today, photography is an absurd pursuit. Digital technology has reduced the entry barrier to photography to a ridiculously low level. The collapse of critical hierarchy has rendered "acceptable" work that meets no discernible criteria. The marketplace for photography is split into two segments. On the one hand, there is the high-end cartel of gallery dealers, complicit museum curators, and compliant trust-fund babies who pursue the excess income of capitalism and the transitory celebrations of fashion. On the other hand, there is the low end of hardscrabble trade among the wannabes, all of whom harbor the illusion of being able to move into the high end, but who lack the position, power, or trust-fund support to make this happen. Occasionally, there can be movement from the second segment to the first for individuals of sufficient sexual attractiveness or whose back-story fits with a currently fashionable narrative in the marketplace. What is left over from this "Tale of Two Cities" must be the pursuit of the private dreams of the exile, the hermit, and the terminally dispossessed.

]]> http://www.russarmstrong.com/commentary/archives/2005/04/2008_work_in_cr.html http://www.russarmstrong.com/commentary/archives/2005/04/2008_work_in_cr.html Commentary on Work Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:19:54 -0400