In terms of the comparison to other art forms, I think it’s a bit off topic, for two reasons. One, most other art forms require specialized technical training which most people don’t have. The average person in the US or Europe does not casually make a work of sculpture or a painting in his or her day to day life; however, he or she quite probably does work with the written word to some degree and there’s a good chance they also make, share, and view photographs.

Of course, most people cannot write particularly well. And even those who can write particularly well often do not (Sturgeon’s law holds in every context, pretty much). What bugs me is that, for those who become excited about writing, there are lots of aspirations to pursue, some of which are part of the sequestered world of literature, created for and consumed by mainly a cultural elite, but many of which are created for and consumed by the general public. And in that realm of popular fiction and non-fiction, there is some good writing (although also much terrible writing).

In photography, it seems like there is nothing (or very little) filling the gap between ad/wedding/industrial/etc. photography and art photography. And that wasn’t always the case, and it maybe doesn’t have to always be the case in the future.

The point about music is interesting, and it would probably be worth elaboration by anyone but me. Certainly music (at large) has far more cultural penetration than probably any other medium, and most people have some degree of fluency in it — whether it’s being able to play an instrument or just being able to sing along with the radio. But the nature of creation/participation is different, esp. since it’s a performance thing.

But what if the distribution of music today (and the paths of aspiring musicians) were confined only to ad jingles, wedding marches, orchestral performances, marching bands, and singing in the shower?

Because that’s pretty close to what photography looks like today.

You make the inference that photography is different from other artforms: Is there photography which is produced for and consumed by the general public, for the joy of it? With the possible exception of music, I think that few other artforms are consumed by the general public. What percentage of the population read books? Essays? Poetry? How many seek out visual art? Performance art? Dance? Very little of these escape the confines of their “art communities”.

It also makes me view the photo differently. Remember I said I didn’t care much for your shadow in the photo? In this context, it makes so much sense. I take back everything I said…

Fuji had one small shelf of film in an isolated display cabinet. That was it. Kodak gave no indication that they even know what film is.

There were a couple film bodies at chez Leica and someone had taken the film back off his Hasselblad to try a digital one at that stand. And Olympus had a couple classic Pens on display.

But that was it.