As is frequently the case, The Online Photographer has a couple of great articles this week:

T.O.P 10: #2: The Concerned Photographer is a wonderful perspective on two famous photographs.

If Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” is photography’s madonna, then the last of the many great photographs of Gene Smith, Tomoko Uemura in her Bath, is our pietà.

Distrust of Beauty laments certain notions – we’ve all probably had them – about making art edgy at the expense of making it beautiful.

I heard an excellent lecture by playwright Stephen Dietz, about what he called “The Four Seductions” – the four big things that seduce artists away from making the best art they can. Three of the four are disparagement of craft, criticism, and blaming the audience; number one on Dietz’s hit parade is distrust of beauty.

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