Thought For The Day

[Mike Farley]

The following is a quote from "Wall and Piece", a book published in 2006 and written by Banksy, the "guerilla" graffiti artist.

"Art is not like other culture as its success is not made by the audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the million and buy records by the billions. We, the people, affect the making and the quality of most of our culture, but not our art. The Art we look at is made only by a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go into an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires."

Photography has never been so accessible, with digital technology and websites such as Flickr, yet which images and photographers will become well known is determined by a very small group. And how many people will actually ever purchase even one photograph, whether an original or reproduction?