The Good Photographs of American Photography
Text: Michiel van Mens
Recently I finished a study about the photographic signature in street photography. That article fortunately received a great deal of positive attention—both nationally and internationally—from photographers, curators, and scholars affiliated with leading universities. At the time, I believed the project had reached its natural conclusion.
However, that changed when I recently received access to a unique dataset from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam/Netherlands. The data consists of visitor responses to the photo exhibition ‘American Photography’, including answers to the question: “Which photo do you still remember?” This inspired a new investigation, centered around the question: ‘What is the underlying rationale behind a good photograph?’
The combination of this distinctive dataset, a focused research question, and insightful results has led to a new article, which I’m excited to share with you.
However, that changed when I recently received access to a unique dataset from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam/Netherlands. The data consists of visitor responses to the photo exhibition ‘American Photography’, including answers to the question: “Which photo do you still remember?” This inspired a new investigation, centered around the question: ‘What is the underlying rationale behind a good photograph?’
The combination of this distinctive dataset, a focused research question, and insightful results has led to a new article, which I’m excited to share with you.
Oversatt til norsk:Nylig fullførte jeg en studie om den fotografiske signaturen i gatefotografi. Artikkelen fikk heldigvis mye positiv oppmerksomhet—både nasjonalt og internasjonalt—fra fotografer, kuratorer og forskere tilknyttet ledende universiteter. På den tiden trodde jeg at prosjektet hadde nådd sin naturlige konklusjon. Imidlertid endret dette seg da jeg nylig fikk tilgang til et unikt datasett fra Rijksmuseum i Amsterdam, Nederland. Dataene består av besøkendes svar på fotoutstillingen ‘American Photography’, som inkluderte svar på spørsmålet: “Hvilket bilde husker du fortsatt?” Dette inspirerte til en ny undersøkelse, sentrert rundt spørsmålet: ‘Hva er den underliggende fundamentet bak et godt fotografi?’ Kombinasjonen av dette distinkte datasettet, et fokusert forskningsspørsmål og innsiktsfulle resultater har ført til en en ny artikkel, som jeg er begeistret for å dele med dere.
