Reply To: "Grunge" photos: Faux or legitimate art?

[alexandra]

I find that many photographers who are prone to otherwise producing uninteresting photos use this whole look to cover up their lack of skills. So no, I am not a fan of this most of the time at least. It would be a lie to say I have never done this as an experiment in attempt to make an otherwise boring photo more interesting, but I would never feature this work amongst my professional shots.
When it comes to instagram, I feel like the filters they put together do a good job fixing poor lighting conditions, and blowing out skin tones in order to cover up imperfections and bad lighting/shadows on the face. Two of the filters (Hudson and Toaster) also contain mild scratches. This makes sense if all you’ve got is your phone, and don’t want to carry around studio lighting with you all day in case there happens to a situation that calls for a taking a snapshot. Again, I find that it would be totally wrong to edit someone’s wedding with instagram, but I think that whole app/website is great for sharing photos, and for correcting fun snapshots taken with one’s phone.