Art and the Murder Case Photograph Series, Take Two

Art and the Murder Case Photograph Series, Take Two*

We make one addition to our definition of art. Art must be an artifact, it must be the creation of (wo)man. There must be some manipulation of existing materials to produce something different. Therefore one is not an artist when pointing out to some friends a beautiful and soul-stirring moonrise.

This codicil seems to be reasonable. A definition of art should include as much of what most people think of as art while providing some clarity on the parameters. Happily, this codicil excludes the crime scene photographs published here because we did not create anything by publishing them. We simply pointed to the moon.

Unhappily, the codicil would exclude DuChamp's Fountain and Warhol's Brillo Boxes which-- loved or loathed--are considered by the art cognescenti to be art. We have weighed this dissonance and our hubris in excluding these works against our sincere consideration of an appropriate definition of art and have decided in favor of sincere consideration. Fountain and Brillo Boxes, be gone.

-Benjamin Harris


*Art and the Murder Case Photograph Series, August 5, 2006.