Giving Beauty a Bad Name

David Ward

T-shirt winning landscape photographer, one time carpenter, full-time workshop leader and occasional author who does all his own decorating.

davidward.photo

On the 14 October 2010 this image by German photographer Thomas Struth sold for £169,250 at an auction in London (the pre sale estimate was £90,000).

Thomas Struth - El Capitan (Yosemite National Park)

Now many of the readers of this magazine might think this a vastly over-inflated price for a rather dull snapshot! I want to look at why a loose affiliation of people that I shall call ‘landscape photographers’ might read it in that way and why critics and another loose affiliation I call ‘artists as photographers’ might see it as something more admirable.