This question of “what is art?” is still not letting go of me.

In my case, with photography, the question is more “what image do I want to create that makes me proud I created it?”

I do think that there is a place for beauty for the sake of beauty. I like sunset and mountain photos. I take many of that type of photo. I think art can be art just by being beautiful.

But, I’m also starting to understand what Justin Jones was talking about when he said there should be more to a photo than, in the words of Chase Jarvis, a pretty picture of a pretty place.

I like this quote from Karl Taylor, a UK commercial photographer and photo educator. It’s got me thinking…again. Is he right? I’m not sure but I think probably he is.

A successful image can only be judged by how long the viewers want to look at it.

I suppose we can argue about what a “successful” image is or about how long is “long enough”, but I think Karl is trying to counter the “Scroll…Like…Scroll…Like…Next…Next…Next” Instagram culture. He’s saying that a good image (perhaps a great image) should stop you in your tracks during that scrolling and make you ask “what is this about?”

Maybe Instagram or Facebook are not the right venues for detailed exploration of a complex image. Maybe it needs to be printed large.

But even in the social media world, there are images that I just click and move on, even though I do think they’re good photos. And then there are images that make me stop and look and perhaps even leave a thoughtful comment underneath (not just a “great photo” pat on the back).

The question, to me, is “Why?” What made me stop? What made that image different?

I’ll keep exploring this idea for a while.