Challenge the Devastating Power of Unwarranted Criticism

We give the negative comments from unimportant sources too much power.

He had waited weeks for this moment.

His hero, someone he really admired, was coming to see his photographs.

This was the moment of validation he had been seeking for a year or more. He had studied this hero in order to help him build a stronger vision for his own work. He wasn’t copying, he was being inspired and motivated by the work of this national level artist.

And today was the day.

I was teaching in a trade school back in the 80s, and one of my students, a very talented young man from Ventura, CA was hanging his final project along with the others in his class. The show was a yearly look at the students graduating from a two-year photography course.

I was very excited for him as he was truly a gifted and hardworking artist.

A former CHPs motorcycle officer, he had been hit by a drunk driver and spent six months in Intensive care, and three full years in recovery.

And the discovery of photography, he once told me, was his saving grace.

The moment came.

The big-time ad shooter strutted through the halls with his ‘coterie’ of sycophantic wannabees and hanger’s on. He made casual remarks about the work until he got to Brian’s.

He stopped and looked at it for a few moments, then puffed out his chest and prominently announced…

“This is the type of crap that bores the hell out of me.”

Everyone was in shock. Way over the top criticism for an art school setting.

And the work was really the best hanging that day. By far.

And they knew it.

I watched Brian deflate.

Fold inward.

Wither.

Brian’s work was hailed by everyone else, in fact, he was offered a job by a local architectural firm later that day.

But he turned it down.

I tried to explain that the ‘big time’ hero was no more than a tiny, insecure, and all-around terrible person.

It fell on deaf ears. For Brian, the negative critique was the validation of his negative self-image and another reminder of how lost he was. (I should note that being hit on a motorcycle at 70 MPH also leaves a physical reminder of that incident every time one looks in the mirror.)

Brian left school the next day, never graduated, and as far as I know, never shot again.

Of course, this was an extreme case. One Brian has to bear some responsibility for. He put too much emphasis on the opinion of someone he really didn’t know.

Truth is, Brian intimidated the big guy. His work was better than the visiting hero.

And some people simply cannot handle any threat to their position.

I call those people “shit people”, but that’s just me.

Brian allowed this art bully to influence him in such a negative way that it was disastrous for his career and his personal relationship to the thing he loved.

The absolute truth is we give too much weight to unwarranted criticism. We listen too hard to unrequested criticism. We note the negative more than the positive.

I once received nearly 100 positive reviews on one of my books, but I can recall the single one-star “I hated this crappy book” review word for word.

I have since learned that these sort of over-the-top negative criticisms say more about the critic than the work, and now I pay them no mind at all.

Beware the power you give to the negative, and ask yourself if what is being said is actually true. Facts are facts, but opinions have a rather tenuous relationship to facts or truth.

And one person’s opinion is not a valid critique.

And we all must stop outsourcing our personal values, truth, and validity to people who do NOT have our best interests at heart.

(Hmmm, actually at this moment I cannot recall that negative review. Fascinating.)

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.