Interesting article.
It reminds me of part of Neil Gaiman's 'advice to writers' - Neil Gaiman being himself an extraordinary writer and storyteller who has, over the last several decades, revolutionized and reinvented several genres, while continuing to write remarkable things in other ones. Several years ago he wrote several thoughtful "Rules of Writing" to think about -
His Rule #5 treats a similar subject to what Don Giannatti is writing about. Gaiman says -
"Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
It's surprisingly helpful advice for writers - because, reading between the lines, Gaiman is suggesting that all 'criticism' is, of course, subjective - and that when someone expresses a subjective opinion about your work, they are at least 'right' for themselves. Because our work - whether we are writers or photographers or whatever - will never totally 'work' or appeal to everyone. So if someone opines that something 'doesn't work for them' - they're really giving a valid personal/subjective reaction. Like it or not, our work may not work for everyone - and discovering that it doesn't can, at times, be an incredibly helpful tool. At least, it can for writers (my day job). I think in certain circumstances, it can also be or do that for photographers.
The second part of Gaiman's cleverly understated 'Rule' is even better - namely that even the best-intentioned advice someone (let's call these someone's who offer advice 'critics') gives you about how to 'fix' something - is almost always wrong.
Why? Because....they're not us. They're not you or me. And the only way to 'fix' - i.e. improve - something - is to find our own way of doing it, something that makes sense and/or works for us.
As part of an amusing and apt earlier 'Rule', Gaiman also suggests, when we are about to show our work to others, to - "show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is". Here he's on common ground with Giannati obviously - because in the best of all possible worlds, it would be great to be able to show our work to those "whose opinion (we) respect". It seems so obvious, but it's worth saying. But the second part is less obvious but no less worth thinking about - not just to people whose opinion we respect - but to those "who like the kind of thing that it is". Therein lies the rest of the crux of the matter for me. As a writer, if I write what I consider to be a brilliant horror story - and want feedback/reactions/criticism to it - it's a terrible mistake for me to show it to someone who, though I deeply respect their opinion in many things, also happens to either dislike, hate, or simply not understand the 'horror' genres. Ditto for us photographers - and for the people we expose or give or share our work with.
My favorite part of the article was the Theodore Rooseveldt quote at the beginning. It's so apt for so many things - I 'get' why Giannatti has it on his wall
Thanks for starting the thread Andrew / gryphon1911 .... definite good food for thought.