Feedback is always...fun

After posting the portraits from my previous post around a few photography forums, I have had a lot of mixed feedback, mostly negative, which I had expected. I didn't however expect people to be disgusted or even horrified by the results and it just goes to show how simple minded some people can be. I can understand that the images are not very appealing or pretty but this was known prior to taking the shots. Art shouldn't always have to be visually appealing and I feel in ways that getting a negative reaction to these, is more satisfying than joe public saying they're "nice". If an image disturbs you, then that has affected you in some way which in turn, gives the piece additional legibility. If someone doesn't like my work just because it's not pretty, then that's an opinion I don't care for. Least that's my take.

Here are a few of the quotes:

"Personally, they look like S**t"

"they look too made up, not real"

"In the current days of photoshopping, it's nice to see a reverse approach."

"I find them a bit unsettling and I don't scare easily."

"I think it's quite interesting to see what our eyes don't normally see."

"They don't look healthy... was that the intent?"

"Even though they look unrealistic, they also emphasize our natural appearance, which I find to be quite beautiful."

Numerous times I've had to explain that these portraits are not done in a negative fashion, nor was anything physically added to alter each persons appearance. Simply put, I removed the blue light in the image which enhanced certain areas. Yes, this made pores and cracks much more prominent but they are something that already exists. It was risky yes, but art is all about pushing the boundaries. It would be no different if I had used a modified camera that only takes in UV light, a persons appearance would be completely different to what they had expected. 

Though, I have no intention of offending people and I think in the future I'd probably stray from using the technique. I do however, think it may work on other subjects because it has a sort of HDR feel to it, so it could be interesting to see what details can be pulled out from environmental scenes. 

Who knows though, my approach on a different technique could one day get me noticed, for the better or for the worse. Getting a strong feeling of disgust from somebody in regard to photography, that's quite a powerful reaction.