—‘…..Carried over into photography, that might mean that being politically correct doesn’t signify much unless the work is also visually and conceptually compelling, or rather that these two things are not mutually exclusive, or even separate. To be compelling, there must be tension in the work; if everything has been decided beforehand, there will be no tension and no compulsion to the work. In the latter kind of imagery, the viewers choice is reduced to acceptance or rejection of the “message”, without becoming involved in a more complex response…..
David Levy Strauss in Between the Eyes in an essay called ‘The Documentary Debate: Aesthetic or Anaesthetic?’ in which Salgado’s work is discussed.
the concepts of “visually and conceptually compelling” (or not), the importance of tension in the work and attempt to produce a more complex response are really helpful I think to my musings about ‘why take photographs’
