Feedback!

I can’t remember, now, where I read or heard it, but Jean Cocteau said, “Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don’t like—then cultivate it. That’s the only part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.”

Jennifer Lunden at Poets and Writers (sent to me by my artist buddy SEL)

Larry Wolf, Feedback! (1978/photo 2023)

March 1978

Some works held my interest and envoked feeling or questions

You centered the skull! ... I see pure white and no real textured black ... you seem to save it with your presentation since it is slightly off center  ,,, keep working

As a set they speak of a tense look at human interactions, even the tender moment "the Kiss" is really a seemingly violent last embrace

The images are strongly personal

You've changed

I'd like to see a series with more contrast

The playground is the least noticed of the group and I find it extremely striking

Is there an "in between?" Black-White, Man-Woman

I wish there were more

Happy... cool... frightening... I like but don't ask me why

I also like the very erotic man in the mirror with a camera for a penis ... the collection of people here tonight says a lot for the artist

I see that you look closely at detail and tiny shapes and spaces ... your surprise portrait of the man in the bookstore has a real invitation to create the story of the moment and the stories of his life

Some fade away from lack of contrast... I found the matting monotonous - it appears perfunctory and does nothing to enhance your photos ... Sontag On Photography "The camera as phallus is, at most, a flimsy variant of the inescapable metaphor that everyone unsefconsdiously employs. However hazy our awareness of ths fantasy it is named without subtlety whenever we talk about loading and amining a camera, about shooting a film

I didn't stay long Monday eve. I left feeling sorta ripped-off. Nine prints and I failed to se how one lapped into another. The only thing they have in common is the mounting.  ... It shows talent but you stopped before you finished

Keep shooting

I'm really intrigued by your selection of photos ??? keep going

The lighting is bad - your work is strong - you've got it - the trick is to keep it - I hope you do