Three weeks ago I received a promotional postcard from photographer Gregory Costanzo.

Here it is:

The card’s been kicking around my desk ever since I received it. I didn’t keep it because I loved the image. I kept it because I found the image puzzling – as I found myself occasionally looking at it wondering what the photographer was trying to say to me. Me – someone who would hire a professional photographer like himself.

Does the image say to me that Greg has an exceptional eye for visualizing images that “ordinary” people don’t see? No.

Does the image say to me that Greg has an exceptional sense of composition when visualizing images? Definitely not.

Does the image say to me that Greg has the creativity to produce an intriguing, unique, or memorable image from an ordinary situation? Not at all.

In my opinion, it is precisely these 3 qualities that make a good photographer “good.”  After all, anyone with a finger can press down a shutter button.

So what does it say? To me, it says that Greg is such a cool and privileged person that he can be in the same room as a famous actor and take a very ordinary picture of him – AND be presumptuous enough to think that this would excite or impress an art director into wanting to hire him.

Maybe it’s me – but it’s not working.

Now to be fair, Greg could very well be an excellent photographer for all I know. And I suppose one could argue that the promo card is designed to intrigue – to get the viewer to go to Greg’s site. I don’t know. It didn’t make me want to go to his site.

OK – I don’t want to be such a downer about this. Let’s look on the positive side . . .

I can’t ever recall keeping any photographer’s promo piece on my desk for more than 3 days.

This one’s been on my desk for 3 weeks.

And it’s STILL there. . .