December 2004
It is commonplace to refer to the weak foundations of photography and to the inferiority complexes of those engaged in it, which certainly do not contribute to creating stronger bases.
Its short history, the established disdain from other arts over the years, its widely accepted professional application, its widespread amateur aspect, its technical ease, and many other factors have led those involved in photography to feel socially degraded and artistically marginal.
The relatively recent artistic and social upgrade of photography has given its world the euphoria of acceptance and the hope of establishment. However, these individuals risk suffering the consequences of the thirsty reaching an oasis with a poisoned lake, the nouveau riche avenging the years of his childhood poverty, or the unknown tasting the intoxication of his first publicity.
For them, everything is fine and capable of pulling them from their chronic isolation, provided that photography's presence is emphasized as much as possible and especially that it is not absent from the presence of other arts. Woe betide if, now that its titles of nobility are being shaped, the old hearths of art turn their backs on it. Fire and damnation on anyone who dares to resist the stream of its promotion.
However, what many in the photography world seem to ignore is that achieving any position, and even more so the titles that will express the essential "nobility" of a medium, requires strictness in choices, fixation on peculiarities, and perseverance over time. If photography ends up as a mere artistic spice, it will have burned its cards before it even properly starts its journey towards artistic respect and social acceptance. The louder the sirens of promotion sing, the more we must block our ears and more substantively engage in developing the unique and essential characteristics of photography. The "ruckus," the "uproar," the "hullabaloo," the "lifestyle," approaches as enchanting or disheartening as they are today, may not harm other arts. Their bases withstand. But for photography, they could become its condemnation.
Plato Rivellis