"Which is another way of saying no one is."

Not one of mine. I don't know who took this photo, but it is truly special.

I watched The Incredibles last week. It is a fun movie with many great lessons. There is a part where the son Dash, whose super power is speed, is being told by his Mom (Helen) not to use his super power because he got in trouble at school for using it. (Unfortunately, I can not find a clip of it online.)

The Incredibles
Helen: Dash... this is the third time this year you've been sent to the office. We need to find a better outlet. A more... constructive outlet.
Dash: Maybe I could, if you'd let me go out for sports.
Helen: Honey, you know why we can't do that.
Dash: But I promise I'll slow up. I'll only be the best by a tiny bit.
Dash: Dashiell Robert Parr, you are an incredibly competitive boy, and a bit of a show-off. The last thing you need is temptation.
Dash: You always say 'Do your best', but you don't really mean it. Why can't I do the best that I can do?
Helen: Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we gotta be like everyone else.
Dash: But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special.
Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is.

The last three lines are very important, especially, "Everyone's special ... Which is another way of saying no one is." I have to agree with this. Why is it that everyone has to be honored as special all the time? I am very ordinary and I don't take offense if someone watches me run and does not compare me to an Olympic athlete. My ego will survive without the false praise.

The reason I am reflecting on this is based on something that happened in a class I am taking. In the photo class, we were holding a group critique. During the critique, all the students put up a series of photos and their peers and instructors review them.

I always try to find good things in a student's works and will offer feedback on how they may be improved. I will not say every photo is perfect though. One of the students thought I was a little harsh and should find the beauty in every photo. She felt I was hurting the student's self-esteem by not praising all of their work.

My belief is that a critique shows a few things to the presenter.
1. How others feel about your work.
2. What works in your art.
3. What does not work in your art.

All of these help you become a better artist by not just accepting your art, but to stretch and make it better. Sometimes we are blessed with creating the perfect art the first time, but that almost never happens.

Not every photo is art... or is special. If you go through my thousands of negatives and digital photos, you will find 98% of them are fair at best and shit for most. If they were all special, then none of them would be special.

After reading this post, I must swallow my pride a little. I just realized I did not accept a critique of my critique style. While I am not going to change my philosophy of the purpose of the critique, I am going to make sure my comments are respectful to the student even if they are not laudatory of their work.