Life & Naansense

the Farcartists

This post is a bath.

I’ve just stepped out of a sewer and this is the bath I need to take to wash off the unwanted filth lest I stink for days and ruin the happiness of those around me along with my already demolished one.

The sewer was the website of a young, upcoming photographer Farcartists, recognized in related national-level associations and featured in a prominent national print paper. The site runs high on steroids of clever tricks, flashy display and over-the-top (and nowhere near to be met) claims of quality of work. Of course, its raison d’etre - the work, the photography itself is alarming enough to book a case against.

{By the by, if anyone who reads this is aware of any kind of law against this - perpetuating blasphemous content in the sacred space of Art and in the process violates the very essence of it and hence amounts to sacrilege, please let me know.}

But the sewer is not just made of this, but is made even more rotten by the appraisers of such content. The people who go head over heels and emanate oohs and aahs with such degrees of flattery that I want to sue them first. Herd mentality couldn’t get a better example. I feel sorry for those photographers Farcartists, disillusioned as they come, that they have such friends who, instead of offering them honest feedback and thus opening up awareness for betterment, keep steering and encouraging to get worse and commit more atrocious acts in the name of photography. And then there are those blind-folded, pocket-loaded folks who are ready to pay truckloads of money for this sewage while gloating at their own choice-making genius foolery.
It’s a conflict between pity, shock, disbelief, and condolence when i try to select the appropriate response to such crimes.

This sewer floods us at many places. You don’t have to go very far for evidence. Just objectively glance through any of the various “xyz Photography” pages you’ve liked or were asked to like (cause it’s a friend’s or a friend coaxed you to) - the realms of abominable imagery which fills those pages is enough to give any photographer worth her/his salt, nightmares.
The getting-under-your-skin kind of photographs in which you get tagged. The random, unknown website and their cheap as a dime contests which these desperate-to-prove photographers Farcartists win on a daily basis for images which are best not talked about. The endless array of comments goading the same. The… Oh the horrors!

It’s the gimmickry which sells, not the Art; whatever minority of it manages to survive. The puritans always like to counter, quite vehemently, saying that real Art is not meant for selling. And I would be all for it, except for these reasons:

1. With what are the Artists to feed themselves? Contentment of indulging in true Art, unfortunately, isn’t very filling. Even lesser for the family.

2. Isn’t what selling an act of social recognition and sanction? Isn’t it a subset of Art Appreciation?

3. What sells, perpetuates. And lasts. The rest get shunted to the corners of time so dark, that rare intents of discovery uncover them. Is this what we want to hand over to our next generation in the chest of Art?

With that i’m just about done with my bath; this time. I expect many more similar occasions to arise (it’s my way of readying you for more such baths).
Because, while the Farcartists roam free and shine and smile for the societal paparazzi, the Artists travel on pathless tracks in unfriendly lands.

P.S. For those still wondering, Farce+Artists = Farcartists. I wonder if the Oxford Dictionary fellows are reading this…