Dudley Reed is an altogether riskier item: a photographer who has
style rather than a style. Craft photographers have it all worked
out before they start, Reed only understands it when he has finished.
If that sounds like vulnerability that's apt. But that's also art.
Photographers are not meant to be like chairs, or camshafts, they're
not meant to replicate each other. Sure, they're thus traduced- but
wasn't the idea that they should be of something, someone. Reed is
far from self-effacing. But he has the happy arrogance to realize that
he shows up through his inventions and ideas and conceits- which are
various, yet particular to each picture. The lack of formula is his
only formula.
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