his is one of the ones that proves photography is an art medium. It was the inspiration for "The River Witch", which went off in a different direction. You've heard that old saw about "Is photography art", haven't you? Not so much anymore, I guess, but it used to be a big philosophical point. Maybe it still is in some circles. Purists give up slowly. There was a good magazine interview once, with Edward Steichen, one of the early photographic artists, and close friend and mentor of Georgia O'Keefe. I met her once at a gallery in Santa Fe, and didn't know she was famous. Ignorant country boy, first trip more than 50 miles away from home. Not one of my more sophisticated periods. Anyway ... he had just been honored with the position of curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The interviewer asked him the question about photography and art and he replied that he had spent many nights arguing about it in Greenwich Village in the old days, and he no longer gave a damn. Best answer I ever heard. There is something wrong with the question anyway. It's like asking if oil is art. Of course it isn't. What some people do with it is art, though.  Back