The Art of CIP wrote:
"EDGY"

the c word=most vile word in the english language IMHO..I have never used it.

the n word, both variables. Comeon, seriously. If those of you who believe in angels could imagine an ancestor (former slave)'s angel visiting earth for a day and listening to a rap song..would they really appreciate that word being used to mean "friend"?!?! Especially when they LIVED through intolerable conditions while being called that same word (yes, it is the same!) Ugg it is just vile.

D. Brian Nelson wrote:
Cmon, folks.  Tell us why.

-D

"EDGY" is one of those words people use to defend their work when their work can't defend itself...  I had someone tell me that "edgy" means "pushing the edge"...  Interesting - whose edge?  I may not know too much about this art thing - but I do know what some people consider "edgy" - others consider quite tame...  Alot of poeple say my artwork is "edgy" - tell that to my teachers...  They'll laugh at them - or as my 
anatomy teacher has told me before (many times might I add) "You're work is very clever daaahling - but you're not fooling me!"

Zach Watkins wrote:
"onomatapia"

"Onomatopoeia" seems to be an alternate spelling.  I waaay misspelled it in a post here and even Google couldn't find it using my version.

-Don

Sita Mae Edwards wrote:
Instead of just saying that a bunch of words/descriptions are dumb, how about suggesting alternatives for people like me who don't have your experience and education?

Point taken.  I'll see what I can do in the OP.

(Yes, I am elitist.  I've written about that other places and may do so here sometime, too.)

-Don

Edit:  Recommendations added.  Only recommendations though. I'm not any final authority.

Sita Mae Edwards wrote:
I have been using artistic and art nude lately, as well as figure study, and while I see your gripe, I don't know what to use instead.  I'm working on pictures of naked people with tattoos, and I want to convey to prospective models that I'm not doing crappy crotch shots - I'm aiming for something with a kiss of the elegant and beautiful.  I use those words to try to distinguish what I'm doing from www.crappyalternachickpussyshots.com.

I'm not art school educated and don't know the fancy words.  I'm just a beginner with a camera, using the best words I can find.  Your post really smacks of elitism, Don.  How the hell do I know what academics use to talk about art?  I'm making images using the web and the models I find here.

Instead of just saying that a bunch of words/descriptions are dumb, how about suggesting alternatives for people like me who don't have your experience and education?

Boy I hear ya on that one!  I use artistic also for lack of a better word.  I'd love to hear other expressions that would be good descriptions for my work.  I have virtually NO ego...so saying my stuff is "artistic" or "artsy" is actually something that I have had to get used to hearing from others in describing my work.  But, then again, art can be like junk:  One man's junk is another man's treasure.  I see some stuff that is called "artistic" and want to shreik and run away.....

Justin N Lane wrote:
irregardless.

LOL!

I hate that word too.

oh, and the pronunciation whoooore.

Lady Bronze wrote:

the c word=most vile word in the english language IMHO..I have never used it.

the n word, both variables. Comeon, seriously. If those of you who believe in angels could imagine an ancestor (former slave)'s angel visiting earth for a day and listening to a rap song..would they really appreciate that word being used to mean "friend"?!?! Especially when they LIVED through intolerable conditions while being called that same word (yes, it is the same!) Ugg it is just vile.

I completely agree.   You rock.

D. Brian Nelson wrote:
"Artistic" - this is an adjective most often used to convince someone that something is made as art is made, or made with the intent of making art. 

(Recommended substitute:  "Art" is a fine word, because it doesn't fiddlefuck around.  Use it instead, if you dare.)

"Art nude" - Or worse yet, "artistic nude."  Everywhere else in the art world, one uses the term "figure" and doesn't bother to add "art" to it.  The trouble with this word combination is that, once again, it's mostly used to convince rather than describe.  No one ever uses "art horses" to describe a photograph of horses that was made as art.  It is just not necessary.

(Recommended substitute:  "Figure work," "art," or no description at all.  Your work should not require any interpretive help.)

"Fine art" - OK, two words.  The "fine" part comes from German and means beautiful.  The only places "fine art" are used are on the web and in academic institutions to assure separation from "practical arts" departments.  If someone calls something "fine art," you can be sure he has no contact at all with the art world.

(Recommended substitute:  "Art.")

-Don

To quote Helmut Newton: "Some people's photography is an art. Not mine. Art is a dirty word in photography. All this fine art crap is killing it already."

The Art of CIP wrote:

"EDGY" is one of those words people use to defend their work when their work can't defend itself...  I had someone tell me that "edgy" means "pushing the edge"...  Interesting - whose edge?  I may not know too much about this art thing - but I do know what some people consider "edgy" - others consider quite tame...  Alot of poeple say my artwork is "edgy" - tell that to my teachers...  They'll laugh at them - or as my 
anatomy teacher has told me before (many times might I add) "You're work is very clever daaahling - but you're not fooling me!"

Hey! I have edgy work! It happens everytime my camera doesn't focus properly!

MEWanoDesigns wrote:
I'm with Lady Bronze on the c-word... or as the ladies on Sex and the City said, their Cee U Next Tuesday.

Also, for some reason, I hate the word "laurels', as in backside, ass, or rear. To me, it sounds so disgusting, and rude. My mother used the word a lot in a negative connotation, so it may be tied to that, but honestly, I just cringe when I hear it.

Also, I hate the word 'retarded'... a few years ago, when everyone my age was going around saying, "Oh, that's Soooooo retarded!" "You're such a retard" I got more than my fill of it. I've got a younger brother that I didn't know about untill around a year ago, and he's mentally challenged, and probably by a lot of people's standards, 'retarded', but he's one of the most gifted, loving boys I've ever met, and I would be infuriated if anyone ever used that word to degrade or describe someone.

Great point....I despise the word crazy..I am a future psychiatrist who does NOT believe in the word crazy..at all or by any means. The human brain, and human condition is a remarkable, yet very fragile thing..there is no such thing as crazy. Period.

thanks Isis.

D. Brian Nelson wrote:
"Vagina" - This is an internal organ.  It is the passageway from the vulva to the cervix.  It's very diffficult to photograph without specialized medical equipment or a speculum, and thus not really a photographic subject. 

(Recommended substitute:  "Vulva."  Or any of the vulgar terms.  At least they aren't anatomically incorrect.)

Actually, there is a specialized fetish market & a segment of the adult industry that does use it as a photographic subject with use of said equipment  :-)

Lady Bronze wrote:

the c word=most vile word in the english language IMHO..I have never used it.

I kinda like the c-word used in the british context...

Justin N Lane wrote:
irregardless.

Oh yes
that makes my skin crawl
I've almost gotten in to fights over it

oldguysrule wrote:

To quote Helmut Newton: "Some people's photography is an art. Not mine. Art is a dirty word in photography. All this fine art crap is killing it already."

That's part of why he's one of my heroes  :-D

oldguysrule wrote:
To quote Helmut Newton: "Some people's photography is an art. Not mine. Art is a dirty word in photography. All this fine art crap is killing it already."

That reminds me.  Newton also hated the terms "good taste" and "tasteful," in describing his work.  Kant used "good taste" but in a completely different sense than it was used on Newton's stuff.  Kant's use required a background of study in order to even possess "taste."

I don't much like when folks call my stuff "tasteful" either.  I figure I'm not trying hard enough.

Newton was of two minds, however.  He sold prints and did books and gallery shows.

-Don

Justin wrote:
Irregardless. (suggest: regardless)

Okay, when I threw this one out there, I was waiting to see if anyone called me on it for not actually being a word.  Which it isn't.

Lady Bronze wrote:
more words that irk me.

Supposibly. LOL. its supposedly.

Liberry. (library)

Anything spoken in ebonics.

Anything spoken in redneck speech. such as "y'all! up on the ruff (roof)"

people who enunciate the crap out of words like whhhhhite, veeHICKle..

sundee mondee tuessdee wednesdee thursee..you get the point.

Wow I hate a lot of words.

LOL. Been to the deep south lately?

Lady Bronze wrote:
more words that irk me.

Supposibly. LOL. its supposedly.

Liberry. (library)

people who misuse the word "ignorant" for rudeness. Ignorant is a lack of knowledge. Half the time when a person says "ignorant", what they mean to say..is "arrogant." Arrogant is cocky self important rudeness. For an Ignorant person to call an arrogant person ignorant, the ignorant person is infact displaying that he/she himself/herself  is ignorant.

Racism.  Because almost 95 percent of the stuff you hear arent racist at all. That term is used WAY too loosely....and it becomes like the boy who cried wolf....and is a terrible shame for ACTUAL victims of racism, who people just end up not believing, or turning a deaf ear to, because of SO many false accusations running rampant daily.

war, abortion, capital punishment, guns, stem cell research =All things I definantly despise.

Anything spoken in ebonics.

Anything spoken in redneck speech. such as "y'all! up on the ruff (roof)"

people who enunciate the crap out of words like whhhhhite, veeHICKle..

sundee mondee tuessdee wednesdee thursee..you get the point.

Wow I hate a lot of words.

I also hate the word hate.

a person in private just reminded me of another word I hate. FEMINIST. LOL

I HATE when people misuse "ignorant."  I also hate when people say "irregardless" (not a word) and "disorientate" (ummm, it's "disorient").  However, the word "feminist" is a very positive one for me, it's a woman who demands that she's not walked all over by discrimination and misogyny.  I am a feminist damnit!

Justin N Lane wrote:

Justin wrote:
Irregardless. (suggest: regardless)

Okay, when I threw this one out there, I was waiting to see if anyone called me on it for not actually being a word.  Which it isn't.

Ahhh but it is now a word...it was added to several dictionaries a few years ago as an alternate spelling for regardless...with the same meaning.

raveneyes wrote:
Ahhh but it is now a word...it was added to several dictionaries a few years ago as an alternate spelling for regardless...with the same meaning.

I'm going to be sick now...that's just not right

Timeless Photos wrote:
Sometime Canadians speak funny, eh?

I know what ur talkin' aboot...
Sorry I couldn't resist...  Makes me think of the scene in Canadian Bacon when the Americans kidnap the Mountie and tell him "We have ways of making you pronounce the letter 'O'.."

Lapis wrote:
Acronyms like TFP, GWC, etc.

They manage to simultaneously make my skin crawl and yet seem to convey nothing in terms of specifics. They are generalizations of generalizations. I also do not like the word 'manager'.