Is This What Art Is?

In addition to the test print that I ordered to test the quality of mpix.com, I also ordered two copies of one print at the 10x10 size on two separate types of paper. Everything arrived yesterday in two large, thin boxes.

Seeing something that I had snapped blown up so big and printed so nice and glossy and pretty was more than a little surreal.

Other than pictures of the kids, I have never had a snap blown up like that just because.

I've loved taking pictures of things for so long that I don't remember not loving it. The summer after high school I was down at the one hour developer almost daily getting a new roll done.

It was fun, something I enjoyed, and I loved seeing what images were captured. I loved capturing the images.

I have never since been without a camera, although there were times and circumstances where it sat largely idle. With the exception, of course, of Monkey shots.

I've always gotten compliments but, to me, they're just these snaps I take.

I've always wondered how anyone can look at them and say that they are art when they're just snaps.

Art is art.

But then I see snaps that people put out there as art and I think to myself "ummm... Who do they think they're kidding?"

Like the guy who was trying to sell what I can only imagine were his vacation shots, and you look at the picture and it's "oh, what an almost lovely picture of a waterfall and some dude's arm."

Or the woman who sells mostly blurry self portraits. I don't know, maybe there's something there I don't see. Maybe there's a market for that. But all I can think is "Really? Are you serious?"

So I look at these things and think that, shit, I'm way better than that. But then I think about selling them or putting them up in a gallery and I'm torn because omg, they're just snaps, for crying out loud!

Last night I held a dragonfly in my hands, bigger than life and shimmery and translucent in all the right ways with detail that would make your skin crawl and I felt giddy and excited and high in a way I have no way to explain.

And I thought about all the other prints I have yet to order. And I wondered if they will  just sit in the shop. And I wondered how I'm going to feel when I have to put the first one in the mail.

And then I started to wonder who I was going to send all these damn test prints to, because it feels just too weird having them.