One of the question I often had to myself when about to finally find a comment for photo posted in the internet is... am I doing this right ?
Other than image critics which give (harsh, trolling or constructive) input to the photographer, appreciative comments often is about the character of the picture, composition of the picture, or how the photographer managed to capture a great or even perfect moment in that picture. About how deep the meaning contained and the sophisticated concepts, or techniques. It's about the man behind the gun.
In contrary... I think I don't really care about the person taking the picture itself, much like I don't want to bother seeing singer's stage act because I only want to hear the song and sound (not their song).
That's why... I feel that a good way to appreciate the photo is to try and look into the scene itself, bring out curiosity about the things inside it and ask, not how you take the picture, but how you experienced the scene and what came before and after.
The picture itself is no longer a picture or work of art (which might offend the photographer if he thinks highly of his work). It's a shared point of view towards that happening recorded inside. Everything inside that scene became more important than the photographer themselves. But this is not about that "telling story through photo" thing. It's something more... simple and less philosophical.
I guess this is also why I don't bother with model photos. Although they might have great techniques in picture taking, directing and lighting, they don't bring out that feeling of curiosity about what's happening. It's just peoples posing. Without strong drive to "grow your skill" through desire to learn from the veteran, all those well-honed techniques seems uninteresting at all.
In the other hand, documentary photo is my favourite because it shows a scene, a happening that as a human, we naturally want to get more information about. Although, entitling that happening as "drama" is overdoing it IMO. After all, "drama queen" has a bad connotation and over dramatizing something is none the different.
In real world though... I admit I'm a gearhead and first thing I'm interested in is actually the gears no matter how the quality is. Data gathering instinct (a.k.a curiosity) wins.
