Vision over Quality

I checked out photography-on-the.net's forum the other day. If you haven't been to it before, its a forum dedicated to Canon photography. Its been a while since I last visited that site, the last time being around the time I purchased my first DSLR about 2 years ago. I flipped through the categories, occasionally reading a thread here or there, and I soon decided that I was sick of it. I was sick of how it was packed full of pixel peeping, 100% crops, and the constant criticism of OOF and noise. Granted this all has its place in terms of testing equipment, and POTN's forum is a pretty good resource for all things equipment, but when these sorts of critera start to seep into the critiques of work, now thats when I get a little upset. Stop worrying about quality, and start thinking about the vision being portrayed.

Of course quality is a rather subjective word. I personally consider a "quality" image as a good representation of what the photographer is trying to say, but for the sake of this argument I'm referring to quality as such aspects as sharpness, noise, etc. I've read a lot of critism of work based specifically on these criteria, and its pretty disappointing. It's disappointing because once you start getting into these aspects, you really begin to criticize the capabilities of the camera rather than the vision of the photographer. If such criteria were the basis for what is considered a "good" photograph, the works of photographers such as Paolo Pellegrin and even Henri Cartier-Bresson himself would not qualify as a "good" photograph.

Blurred and dark, must not be a good photograph.

The photographs above are a part of Paolo Pellegrin's award winning book As I Was Dying. It is a grim look into the suffering that had taken place in front of Pellegrin during his time around the world. The photographs throughout the book are dismal and dark.. and also largly blurred, but this really portrays what Pellegrin was trying to get at. It is almost like the cold-sweat recollection of a nightmare. His vision is clear through his vague photographs.

Intense vingette, Subject is rather soft. Not a good photograph?
(photograph by David Burnett)

Holgas are a true testament to how a good photograph doesn't need "quality." Holgas are terrible cameras. They tend to have a problem with light leaks and intense vingette. The plastic lens doesn't really help with clarity either, but these imperfections are really what makes the images that Holgas produce beautiful.