Photography with artistic aspirations exists on a scale from quite subtle (sterile even) to wildly showy and dramatic. If you’re not feeling particularly “sensitive” at a particular moment, the subtle/sterile stuff can seem quite mundane, boring and easily dismissed from further consideration. If you *are* feeling perceptive, then the more dramatic stuff overloads your sensory inputs and you hurriedly dismiss it out of “self-defense” and consider it over-the-top flash.

The more subtle/sterile work tends to be less accessible to a general population, and thus photography elitists take refuge here because of its perceived exclusivity; the more the general population says, “I just don’t get it”, the better the elitists like it because it reifies a distance between their tastes and that of the general population.

Of course, elitists sometimes find themselves drawn to the less subtle work; but as long as they keep it to themselves and not let it bleed out into the work they select or create for display, they can privately enjoy their rendezvous with less sophisticated imagery.

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