Going to a Dance

I had attempted something similar almost exactly four years earlier in the same place and had been quite pleased with the result:

However, I feel the latest effort is an improvement. I was very pleased that you had made time to record your views so thoroughly because I never really know whether images are generally interesting and appealing. Some generate no interest whereas others surprise. That is the value of ipernity with its many discerning and capable artists.

I was unaware that it had fetched this price. I can honestly say that if I had found Sander's photo in a snapshot pile at an old paper or collectibles show going for a buck, without knowing who it was by, I would have passed on it.

To me, Sander's photo just looks like a bad menswear ad. Yours displays far better composition (as does your other version). And Sander's is murky.

Sander was supposedly constructing a typology of German society, a dubious exercise, to put it mildly. That doesn't seem to bother anyone, nor does his representation of three non-farmers as farmers.

One of the great benefits of photography to me is that it makes changing POV easy. Your two photographs here illustrate the benefits of looking at things from angles other than the normal. There are all sorts of interesting things to be found.

Of course, first you have to get people to look at things. These days people seem to prefer the artificial worlds in their cellphones to the real world about them. So I often try to promote looking at things we usually pay no attention to. That's why many of my photos are about the wonder of traffic cones.

I too would pass on Sander's photo. It looks contrived and boring to my eye. I am flattered by the contrast you draw with my photographs. I would add that from the moment art changes hands for money it becomes degraded and distorted. The effect is small when it is exchanged for a meal or the rent. The larger the sum, the greater the debasement.