Hito Steyerl's "In Defense of the Poor Image" is an artwork in itself. This written piece uses a strong comparison of an image quality as quite literal and also symbolically. I am a photographer and have deep frustration when I see a low quality image. I know right away when an image has been overproduced-- when a file is sent so many times it is compressed so it looks more like a bunch of pixels instead of a clear image. The same happens quite literally when we see an image reproduced so many times it just loses meaning. I was in my photography class last month showing some of my old work. A student commented on an image of mine calling it over done-- essentially calling it a poor image. Harsh critique, but she was not wrong. The image was one I took in high school of a model in a milk bath with flowers. Even typing that out, I know that image sounds so cliche. The image is poor and not because of the quality because it is clean image, it just has been to seen too many times before. I think having this perspective is a great tool for artists to use because we are often aware of familiar images, we just have to avoid repeating those. That is why art is frustrating because imaginational and creativity is so diluted by the images on the internet that it is hard to find a new perspective to share.
bcwswim
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