Visiting Critic

For my visiting critic, I met with Justine Reyes, who is also a photographer. She seemed to neither love nor hate my piece. The biggest problem she had with it was that she believed my photos fell short of the complex emotions I was meddling with. She also said that a lot of the images were too literal. There were, however, some that she did like. An example of an image she thought I should have taken farther was the image I had of a razor that was about a secret in which someone did not shave their armpits. She said that since it is a shameful secret it should be displayed in that way. In my image, the razor is set against a white background that may suggest cleanliness so I understand where she was coming from in that aspect and I agree. I did not like how she seemed to later put down my work without directly saying so. I tried to explain my reasoning behind shooting some of the images in certain ways but she couldn't see my point of view and said that it didn't achieve what I said.  When she said that the images lacked meaning she continued by asking what the response had been so far for the work. I responded by telling her that it had been receiving great support and positive feedback. People who had secrets that were displayed as images were positively moved by its presence. Her only response was, "really?" as if she were surprised that it was actually enjoyed by others. I was hoping for a better critique but not everyone is going to love a work of art. To each is own I guess. It was just frustrating that I had worked on this for a long time a spilled my heart into that work and she treated it as if it were nothing. I definitely could have done without talking to her.