Bud Grossmann’s Words of the Week for the Week of March 22, 2015 Previously unpublished Art Criticism. © 2015 by Bud Grossmann. All Rights Reserved.   Two Men Wearing Neckties (2015) © 2015 by Bud Grossmann A CRITICAL COMMENT ON A PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD BURBRIDGE In general, I refrain from commenting publicly on art that displeases me, but I would appreciate your looking at page 57 of the March 23rd issue of my favorite weekly magazine. Perhaps you can tell me what redeeming qualities you find in the black-and-white, presumably digital, portrait of Peter Gelb. I myself found few. Lit from above, shot from below, Mr. Gelb has great globs of reflected light in his eyeglass lenses; he appears shifty-eyed behind the glare. Possibly the photographer intended that effect, but I would hope not. Mr. Gelb is missing a little slice off the crown of his bald head and would have looked better, I am sure, if the photographer or the photo editor had let the slice remain. The shutter snapped while Mr. Gelb’s lips were slightly parted, showing a pair of rounded upper incisors and three overlapping lower teeth. This might have been the one occasion in a hundred when I would have approved of a picture-taker’s saying, “Please look into the camera and chuckle ‘Cheese!’” I wonder what photos the magazine editor didn’t choose; I wonder how someone decided this picture deserved to fill an entire page. When I did a Google Image search on Peter Gelb, I found dozens of photos I liked better than this one, none that I liked less. And then Google gave me gold. It showed me Peter Gelb’s father, the late Arthur Gelb, represented in a Marion Ettlinger photograph so warm and glorious that I for a moment forgot the assault that a man with a camera had committed upon the son. ♦         ARCHIVES         Click for a list of other Words of the Week I would welcome your thoughts on this page (or any of my others).  Write to me at the following address.  Please be sure to spell Grossmann with two n’s and mention what page you are writing about. Thanks!  BUD GROSSMANN Top of this page | HOME | Fine Photography | Picture of the Day | Writings | | Words of the Week | Mom & Pop Prop. Mgt. | FAQ |

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