You've raised an interesting subject Frank. What is art?
I actually am a mason. My preferred work is pavers - driveways, walkways, patios, etc. It involves design, craftmanship, communication skills, hard physical labor. I get a great deal of satisfaction from it because the end result is beautiful, but also useful. People walk on it, drive on it, admire it every day.
I have struggled in the past to find that same satisfaction in photography. For me, I need to achieve something different with photography that is not utilitarian, but philosophical. It has to do with the universal, something to hang on a wall, where it will continue to jog my thinking, and won't grow old. I find this extremely difficult with this genre of photography, because sex can be such a mundane thing.
To give an example. I saw a shot in someone's portfolio the other day that was technically flawed, but yet had an element to it that caught my attention. It was the way the model's breasts were resting on the side of a pool, soft, resting on the hard surface. It conjured in my mind the feel of a woman's breasts resting on me, the joy and closeness a lover will bring. This is the universal, and if that seed of an idea could be adequately fulfilled in a photograph - well that would be art of the highest sort.
Steve
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