ku # 422 and a commentary for your consideration

In the essay The Art That Hides Itself - Notes on Photography's Quiet Genius by Gerry Badger, Badger argues the merits of a 'quiet approach' to photography in which the 'photographers voice' - does not impede our approach to the subject. He sees Eugene Atget as the "veritable patron saint of 'quiet' photographer"' and discusses some of the qualities of his work, relating it to ideas of the photograph as a "memory trace" and the "thereness" of his work - something he explains as "a sense of the subject's reality, a heightened sense of its physicality etched sharply into the image."

Much recent gallery photography has relied on the use of large prints - what Badger calls "the muralist syndrome". "Quiet" photography calls for quiet - and thus small-scale works. "Quiet" photographers are obviously concerned about their subject matter whereas some others are more concerned about the concept of the image.

This sentiment seems to echo that of Sally Eauclaire from her book The New Color Photography (out of print but well worth finding [google search]- the hard cover is rare and expensive but the soft cover is easier to find and way less expensive.)

Writing about "...the many photographers who consider visual and/or sentimental excesses as keys to expressivity..." she opines that "...their lust for effect is everywhere apparent. Technical wizardry amplifies rather than recreates on-site observations...they burden it (photographs) with ever coarser effects. Rather than humbly seeks out the "spirit of fact", they assume the role of God's art director making his immannence unequivical and protrusive."
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Question - Do you consider yourself to be a "quiet" photographer, and, if so, why is it important to be so?