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Anonymous
Sup /p/.

I'm looking to study photography next year and was hoping I could get some critiques on my portfolio pieces.

This one represents materialism and spiritual emptiness.
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>> Anonymous
If you need to tell us what your work represents, it isn't working.

Composition is boring and strange at the same time, and very jarring, especially with the bad bokeh of whatever lens you used.

Minimalistic macro shot of a consumer product isn't going to make someone feel anything about materialism. Check out Brian Ulrich's work to see an approach that works for that.

Go see>>100647an example of work that works right here on /p/. It's original and creative, and transcends literalism.
>> OPFOR !8vKpfCqy8A
>>100816
Troll?
>> ac !!VPzQAxYPAMA
>>100819
Successful troll is successful.

(I believe this is a reference to that one guy looking for portfolio critiques last week who went off in a tizzy when he got flamed)
>> Anonymous
>>100835
Possible, but I'm sure there's more than one pretentious seventeen year old on 4chan/
>> Anonymous
>>100819

Quote:

"By scrutinizing these rituals and their environments, I hope that viewers will evaluate the increasing complexities of the modern world and their own role within it."

So if Brian Ulrich has to write a statement page telling us what his work represents, but we can't write a statement telling you what our work represents, does that make Brian Ulrich a total talentless hack?

I BELIEVE SO.
>> Anonymous
>>101908
There's a difference between a well-done artist statement and "this represents this."

I might've written a bit more clearly, though: "if you need to tell us what your work represents in order for us to think it's anything but a random macro snapshot, it isn't working."

Most of Ulrich's photographs could stand on their own; the ones that couldn't are given the needed context by the other photographs they're presented with.

If the OP posted it as a series or a triptych with a shot of a bored fat guy and a baby suckling a soda bottle like a teat, then it would've been a bad photograph in a meaningful series. As it stands, it's just a bad snapshot.