To the extent that Bryan Formhals and Blake Andrews call bullshit on all the one-dimensional hangers-on who trot out influence as justification for shit work, I agree–vociferously, in fact.
What really grinds my gears is the unqualified ‘ignore’ in the title.
Do they mean stop ascribing undue merit to slipshod homage to great work the image maker does not understand? If so, ‘ignore’ is not even close to the appropriate word. ‘Emulate’ is closer.
Or, do they mean pay no attention whatsoever to the work of these artists? Overall, the commentary suggests–nominally–such isn’t the point.
Why use ‘ignore’ though? I understand & sympathize with–although I can’t join in–the anti-MFA fervor. But there seems a cynical underlying critique of the enduring relevance/importance of photographic masters due to a perceived diminution of the merit of the original in the face of wide spread, soulless counterfeits. I call bullshit on that notion. It’s identical to saying that because an ‘Xtian’ murders an abortion provider or a ‘Muslim’ detonates a suicide vest on a crowded bus that these religious outliers are endemic of the religion they claim.
As criticism its lazy, sloppy and condescendingly douche-baggy.
And I am reserving comment on the Stephen Shore entry; its Philistine insights act as a bellows on the embers of outsize violence smoldering within me.
Acetylene Eyes 