Editorial Letter by Ron Hammond

Cranky Letter Department
I hate Zoom.
This nonsense of sitting in front of a com-
puter and staring at artwork on a screen instead of staring at the real artwork is getting pretty old.
While I’m at it, I hate sitting in front of a computer looking at a face in a little box instead of looking at a real face .
Moreover I hate looking at art on a screen, Zoom or not.
One of the pundits said that the history of art as you see it in a textbook is really the history of artwork that will reproduce well in a quarter-page illustration. Michelangelo's David is the same size as a Japanese netsuke. My addition to that is that all artwork looks the same represented by a 1024x960 pixel jpeg on a computer screen with unknown color balance.
All that said, just today I watched a lecture by Todd Hido (photographer in the Bay area) arranged by the art gallery of the University of Kentucky. About 100 peo- ple attended from all over the western world. I regularly attend a critique hosted by a Portland (Oregon) photographer — with attendees from upstate New York, Tennessee, Burnaby BC, northern California, Chicago, Calgary.
I guess that Zoom and it’s ilk have a place, an important place. But, dang! It’s not the only place.
Back to the real world ASAP