Picture inside a Tropical Smoothie: thoughts/suggestions?

Cowyn2016-PGOCowyn2016-PGO Posts: 597 ✭✭✭✭✭

Walk into the ocean

APPEAL

Harrison Township MI

NOT ACCEPTED

2023-01-10

Rejection Criteria

Other Rejection Criteria

Low Quality Photo

Description

Giant wall portrait that gives you the impression you can walk Straight into the ocean instead of down the hallway. The portrait is inside the tropical smoothie cafe.

Location

26050 Crocker Blvd, Harrison Twp, MI 48045, USA

Supplemental Information

cool picture. can see it barely through window in supplementary photo. This gives context/connection for google maps to proove the portrait exists.

Comments

  • flatmatt-PGOflatmatt-PGO Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Unless you can demonstrate otherwise, this just looks like a generic corporate decoration, and not like an original work of art. "Other Rejection Criteria" is therefore correct, as it doesn't appear to meet any of the acceptance criteria.

  • Gendgi-PGOGendgi-PGO Posts: 3,534 Ambassador

    Cool picture, indeed, but also a stock image and, as said above, "generic corporate decoration." Unless it has a very strong connection to the local area (was it taken in the Detroit area) it should be denied.

    I would more likely to approve the business itself if it isn't a mass chain.

  • SeaprincessHNB-PGOSeaprincessHNB-PGO Posts: 1,608 Ambassador

    I don't love this idea that stock photos aren't art. As someone who has licensed a photo to Getty Images to be a stock photo, you better believe I consider my image to be "art." When I see beautiful photography like this, I am inspired. I think about being in that spot - what it feels like, what it smells like, what it sounds like, what the breeze and sun feel like, what the people are like, what the fishing is like, and how badly I want to take photos there!

    I grew up with stock photos like this framed on my bedroom walls: Sydney Harbor, London, and other places. When other girls were staring at photos of teen heart-throbs, I was looking at travel posters. (OK, I had a poster of Duran Duran hanging in my closet.)

    I don't think it's automatically eligible, but I don't like the "corporate art/stock art" is ineligible mindset.

  • Cowyn2016-PGOCowyn2016-PGO Posts: 597 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Interesting, I didn't think about the question of whether a stock photo is art or not. Is this a real issue for people????

    I will say I attend a number of local art shows every year. Ann Arbor Art Fair and Arts Beats and Eats are pretty big multi day Art shows and I see photos of this size/quality for sale at these art shows for thousands of dollars. So for me the money spent on it does mean something

    As a second question, do people consider photography art? I wonder how many of paintings I have seen are stock reproductions vs original. I've never though when I'm reviewing to search painting images. Does anyone actually do that??

  • flatmatt-PGOflatmatt-PGO Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's not really about "what is art?" for me. It's about what is "a great place to explore" (I'm disregarding the other two categories since they don't seem to apply here). A print of a stock photo, even a rather large one, just doesn't seem interesting enough on its own to make someone come into this location to "explore" it. It seems more like it's just intended to make the space look nicer (and more tropical).

    Let's say this were about were Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" instead. The original, whether it's hanging in a museum or in a McDonald's, would be "a great place to explore." But a print of the painting hanging in that same McDonald's (or any other restaurant), not so much.

  • Gendgi-PGOGendgi-PGO Posts: 3,534 Ambassador

    Agreed with Flatmatt's post above, and adding neither of us said photography or stock photos were explicitly or always ineligible. For something exceptionally mass produced, though, such as this one, there should be something making it significant or meaningful to the area and I don't think it inspiring traveling to a faraway beach is enough.


    I've nominated several photo reproductions in my region that are part of a city beautification project showcasing location attractions and adding vibrant color to drab hallways in a public skywalk. Stock or purchasable photo or not, the photos hold cultural significance and purpose beyond simply being there for decoration.

  • SeaprincessHNB-PGOSeaprincessHNB-PGO Posts: 1,608 Ambassador

    I just find it all kinda arbitrary. A large hand-painted mural is an easy accept inside a restaurant. However, a mural isn't going to drive me to explore a place any more than a large photograph, if I'm being honest. When it comes to restaurants, the only thing that drives me inside is the food. As long as the place is clean, I don't care what is hanging or painted on the walls. So I just don't get the distinction.

  • Cowyn2016-PGOCowyn2016-PGO Posts: 597 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Explore is definitely arbitrary. Most murals, paintings, and artwork outside of a museum isn't something a person is going to travel to and see. I tend to think of explore more as something interesting to note as you pass by or catches your eye.

    To that degree, the scale of this photo just does. I always get a kick out of it when I go in there, in part because of the hallyway next to it. It's sort of metaphysical fork in road. To the left reality, and to the right fantasy.

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