Russian Art - More than just what Sarah Palin sees from her house

I don't like photography as an art. Like I said in my revised artist statement, I believe photography is a tool. I understand fully that a photographer "sets up" his shots (not even all the time, though) and does crazy stuff to, like, the focus and other mechanisms. HOWEVER, at the end of the day if all you're doing is pressing a button that captures light and burns it onto film (or worse, an SP card) then what you are doing is capturing the "art" in front of you and packaging it as your own. With that said (and I could go on) I decided to go take a peak at the Zimmerli's "Four Perspectives Through the Lens: Soviet Art Photography in the 1970s-80s."

I didn't find any photo's. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but the only photographs I saw only strengthened my opposition towards the craft. These photos were snapshots of Russia and its people, and while that is always a good thing I felt like I was looking at a history book instead of a gallery. My bias aside, they were nice pictures I guess?

Unsatisfied, I strolled through the rest of the exhibition. I found some questionable pieces, as always, but I was pleasantly surprised with the paintings. I'm a plebeian, I know, but I can't help it if I don't hate a painting that actually looks good. Miervaldis Polis' "Fingers" is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the part of the show that really resonated with me. In this painting, Miervaldis has painstakingly rendered photo realistic fingers on an impressively sized canvas with oil paints. Not only was the painting itself so accurate and awe inspiring, but it reached beyond the application of the paint and really told a story of the old, weathered fingers. I guess that dude was old or something. You had to bury your nose in the painting to get your eyes close enough to be able to tell if the wrinkles were created by man or nature. Where are the Miervaldis' of Mason Gross? Is anyone even trying anymore? The graphic arts department is so overfilled they are making each student over 150 lbs go on a diet so that more room can be made for the incoming class, and why exactly? Those students know that field is a money maker. It's hard to have integrity when you're trying to pay the bills. How many Miervaldis' are we trading for another graphic artist that is going to take his or her abilities and apply them to skateboards, web layouts, and advertisements for erection pills? I think I can stand a little communism if we can break the mold if not for one semester. Better red than dead.