My mum was very dedicated showing me all our cultural heritage when I was a kid. It was not my favourite part of the trips. I understood that if I protested, it wouldn’t change much and on top of that I would make an impression of being ignorant. And I didn’t want to disappoint her excitement either.

So I tried to absorb it somehow, but it never really worked with history and arts. Very rarely the art seemed to be really interesting. I usually tuned out pretty soon and was trying to estimate how many more rooms can a castle have or simply enjoyed the slippery slippers that we got to put over our sandals to protect the historical floor. Same at museums and galleries - except for the museum of Japanese culture which I honestly enjoyed and explained everyhing to everyone as I knew more than our teacher - I was obsessed by karate. And I couldn’t understand why others were so bored… 🙃

Enough for introduction, let’s get to the point. I am trying and seriously struggling to grasp the difference between rubbish and true photography art. I don’t get it at all.

Of course that there are exceptions and sometimes I can’t stop looking at a picture (or other piece of art). I try to understand what it is that it’s so special or how it was made. But that’s extremely rare case especially when viewing reputable art.

Most of the time, it’s the same problem like when I was a kid. I look at it and it’s simply “blah”. Very often it actually feels so unpleasant that I really don’t want to watch it any longer. These are pictures that I’d delete without a smallest hesitation if I took them. Some are simply boring and empty and others are (intentionally) unpleasant to look at.

I don’t understand. Why would anyone voluntarily look at something like that? Why would anyone even buy it?!

When I create, I always try to do something that I’d love to look at. Something beautiful. Why anyone would like to torture themselves by looking at piece of art that is depressing, exasperating or unsettling? I can just read news to get these feelings, I don’t need extra art.

I honestly think that it’s very easy to make “art” that feels uncomfortable. It’s like with movies - it’s much easier to make a sad drama than a good comedy. It’s much easier to make people feel bad than to make then feel good - by art.

I understand that sometimes there is a strong message that the artist needs to express. Maybe to point out suffering or a problem that (s)he feels that is overlooked. I miss balance - I don’t understand why most of “famous” art is made to make people uncomfortable. Where is the art that makes people feel nice and want to look at it over and over? There are pieces like that, just so few.

Another thing is that significant part of “the rubbish” art doesn’t even contain any significant message. It’s just pure trash. Playing around is awesome, it’s fun, but until the result is awesome, I can’t see why anyone would pay such big attention to it.

I mean that it’s OK for everyone to make whichever art they feel that they need to make. The thing is that there is a huge amount of artists (professional or amateur) and I’d expect society to choose the best to be the art that’s appreciated most.

I’d expect something that you see and you say “wow”. But it’s not like that. Many people take amazing pictures and the artistic world absolutely ignores them. And then you buy a book of art from famous galleries and you get a book of pictures that you’d expect to be in a bin because they are not nice and they don’t make any sense (yes, there are exceptions in every book, but very few).

Again, I am not judging anyone for making any form of art - it’s a form of therapy and communication and it’s all good. What I don’t understand is what is the algorithm of our society for choosing “quality art”. I just really can’t get a grasp of this.

Note added later:

I discussed this view with my husband - I gave him the book of the “truly artistic pictures” and asked him to express his opinion. Half of them which I thought that were rubbish or depressing, he sad that they were OK or interesting. I had to go to the kitchen then to get a snack ready for our daughter, so then I was just listening to what he was babbling without watching the pictures, but it was the same: “Hmmm, OK, aaah, mmm, no, yes, this one is interesting, aahhh, boobies, nice!…“ Maybe that I’m just too picky??

Can anyone help to understand? It’s a completely blind spot for me! I must be such an ignorant in this matter at the moment 🤷🏻‍♀️