Nursing Theory in a Time of Mistaken Critics

In his essay called “Civilizing Criticism,” photographer Robert Adams wrote about the destructive effects that negative critical reviews can have on an artist's work. He described not only how gratuitously hurtful some critics' reviews of artistic exhibits can be, he peeled away layers of superficial thinking that led some critics to carelessly write negative reviews of good artistic work, as if a negative review is the only intelligent review. Perhaps it is easier for a critic to find fault than to affirm. Adams points out the destruction that unmerited negative reviews produce. People do not attend photographic exhibits that receive negative reviews. The years of professional work to develop one's skills, to build a portfolio of photographs, and the substantial financial investment that professional photographers make to develop an exhibit is, with one bad review, trashed. The unrealized investment of time, talent, money, and hope leads professional photographers to realize that artistic photography is not a way to earn a living. Adams' piercing comments expose the destruction that careless words can have on the lives of worthy people. Adams' conclusion—that bad critics make mistakes and that good pictures can survive bad critics—tells its own moving story about the survival of beauty; it speaks volumes about the durability of truth.