Joerg Colberg relayed the simple yet subjectivity-packed question, “What makes a great photo?” to a lengthy list of bloggers, photographers, and blogger-photographers. The unsurprisingly varied answers are posted to his blog Conscientious.

Ross has already posted his viewpoint on his blog but I’ll double quote him here for posterity:

“I don’t respond to single photographs the way some people do. If they are funny or ironic or insightful or informative I will appreciate them as such. But really, one image out of context really does nothing for me relative to a series or body of work.

In my opinion one of the most wonderful things about photography is how it can document a persons perspective, or a particular take on a place or idea. Sometimes that is supremely boring (my recent photographs near crushingly boring levels), but as a whole I hope they speak to something far more interesting.

The point of hero photographs in advertising and editorial photography makes complete sense, and are necessary since most magazines aren’t interested in publishing Ross’s 20 favorite photographs from the shoot. When it comes to making my own work, however, I have the opportunity to be as slow and deliberate with my description of something as possible.” — Ross Evertson

I’ll drop my two cents here. I am quite abashedly emotionally driven when it comes to photography whether it be my own or someone else’s. Announcing a picture as “great” is such a personal thing and it often has so little to do with the technical practice of photography for me.

I can’t ever see a way for me to see a photo that isn’t viewed through my own experience — coloured by my own nostalgia maybe. Every great photo invites me to see myself in the world in some sense. I’ve called my own photos “emotional bookmarks” and that’s what I pick up from other images that really draw me in.