Talk:Ismo Hölttö

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[edit] One of the greatest?

We now read:

According to the blurb of his self-published photograph book, Ismo Hölttö is considered one of the greatest Finnish photographers of all time.

(my emphasis). That's one of the most damning pieces of praise I've ever read. I think it would be kinder (and no less informative about his photography) if we just cut the whole sentence. But I hesitate to do that, as the sentence is merely the first half of a paragraph whose second half is:

The combination of his natural talent, social skills and the special time in history when he photographed his portraits resulted in photography that is also exceptional from an international point of view.

This too is hagiographic and vague. No source for it is given, and I fear that it too is sourced from the same blurb (which I suppose is from the book that's illustrated). Is it, and if so, could we just cut the whole paragraph?

Incidentally, I was fairly impressed by the content as well as size of Hölttö's monster book when I spotted it during a very quick visit to Helsinki in 2006. (I don't have either of these books or anything else by Hölttö.) Unfortunately I know very little about Finnish photographers, but surely the "greatest" include I. K. Inha, whose work really is first-rate by any standard. -- Hoary (talk) 23:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I think your points are well made. I have no doubt his work is important. What would be best would be if there were an evaluation that was not from his own book. I suppose I have now volunteered to try and find one... ;-) In the meantime, feel free to comment the paragraph hidden. -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 23:54, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Spoken like a gentleman! (But then, who else would be riding a pogostick?) -- Hoary (talk) 00:36, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

The situation is in fact very good. I found a site that is advertising a coming co-retrospective by him and a fellow classic documentary photographer of the same era by a respected exhibitor "Kaapeli", so besides their third party evaluation that I have worked into the article, there will likely be loads of unbiased evaluations in finnish media next autumn. (The retrospective is held September to January) -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 08:26, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Good. I'm afraid I'm going to be rather busy for some weeks, but I do want to write about Inha at some time. If you see nothing by June, prod me (with your pogo stick of course). -- Hoary (talk) 10:02, 5 April 2008 (UTC)