I am indebted to Grant Scott at the UK’s Professional Photographer magazine.

In the 18th January edition this year – which I’ve only just seen – he writes a heartfelt opinion piece entitled Has The Düsseldorf School killed photography? As anyone who knows me will have heard me say, no doubt ad nauseam, I find the whole Düsseldorf imitation business frustrating and depressing. I encourage you to read Scott’s piece in its entirety, but here’s the summation:

I am personally fed up with seeing portraits of people without emotion of any kind: portraits of people staring dead-eyed into a photographer’s lens, or avoiding the camera altogether. I am fed up with seeing images of American highways, petrol stations and diners. I am fed up with seeing images of blighted industrial and urban scenes in muted tones. I am fed up with seeing deliberately amateur snapshots documenting ‘everyday’ life. I am fed up with seeing nightmarish visions of our present and future. But most of all I am fed up reading the explanations of why these images are important. Why am I fed up? Because I want to see and enjoy all forms of photography. I want to see true personal expression, not a personal expression wearing the shackles of an aesthetic. I don’t want the world of photography to become alienating and difficult. Photography is not only about challenging perception, it should also explain, provoke myriad emotions and embrace all aesthetics. Commissioned work is just as important and serious as personal projects or exploration.

Couldn’t agree more!

What’s happened to portrait photography?

I swear to God – if I see another portrait where the subject is slap bang in the centre of the frame, looking straight at the camera, with a glum bloody expression on their face – the photographer will be in for a bloody good tweaking if I ever get hold of them.

Why do people do this? I guess it’s some kind of anti-composition statement, or anti-interesting statement.

Good. That feels better.