Stockland Martel

Jean Nouvel's 2010 pavilion for London's Serpentine Gallery. Photo by John Offenbach.

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In a recent interview with John Offenbach, Feature Shoot asked the photographer—whose portfolio spans architecture, landscapes, automotive, portraits, still life, and conceptual—to describe his work. His response? “Tidy, ordered.”

Two words that say it all. That’s not easy to do. Hot Shoe magazine’s blog has devoted a whole post today to artist statements and their “obfuscatory language,” with various industry folk weighing in. (You can read it here.) The consensus seems to be that many photographers rely on so-called language games to burnish their work.

“…Artists tend to paint their faces with unnecessary language,” comments Barry W. Hughes, a photographer and the editor/publisher of SuperMassiveBlackHole. “What they don’t realize is, it is okay not to be Susan Sontag, Gilles Deleuze, Roland Barthes or Guy Debord. You don’t have to be that great thinker, polymathic hero; you just have to be clever at what you do.”

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