"I want to blame museums for creating the situation they’re in, but that’s just foolish. The days of John Szarkowski are over. Make no mistake, it’s not even that I find everything Szarkowski did so interesting (that whole macho street photography cult? Really?). But here was somebody willing to define the medium, willing to put something out there. The willingness might still exist - but the ability is gone. Museums have become ossified institutions, and museum curators aren’t former photographers any longer. Instead, they are professionally trained museum curators, who, to make this clear, are great at what they’re trained to do.
Just don’t expect a curve ball.
In that sense, with everything always being pressed into an art-historical Procrustean Bed it can’t be a real surprise that it was a museum that staged a panel… I’m sorry, a symposium Is Photography Over? The question is ludicrous. But in the museum context, it’s perfectly valid, and it makes perfect sense. The answer is: Yes, at museums photography is over."
courtesy of Conscientious
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