The just launched website Words Without Pictures is essentially a relaunch of the Tip of the Tongue essay and discourse site that had a brief life in the past year. This relaunch is most likely in no small part due to Charlotte Cotton’s new position at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the project’s sponsor.

Words Without Pictures inaugural essay is Christopher Bedford’s provocatively titled, Qualifying Photography as Art, or, Is Photography All It Can Be?. The core of his question is squarely for those entrenched in art criticism and not necessarily for those involved in its creation. But there are some interesting distinctions to be made in terms of those artists who use photography to facilitate a broader conceptual goal and those whose intent is inherently about “capturing.”