Mikey Curtis

Josh Smith
WRIT2
28 January, 2020
Comments on r/photocritique- A New Genre?

If you asked any ordinary person about what they think “genre” is, they would probably

respond by giving you examples of different movie or books genres, like fantasy, realistic

fiction, or sci-fi. They likely wouldn’t consider the specific conventions and rhetorical situations

that make these genres unique. What most people don’t realize is that different genres can be

found all around us, but we just don’t think about them as genres because their conventions are

already hardwired into our brains. For example, if you are writing an email to your professor,

your grammar, language, and structure will be much more professional than if you were writing

a text to a friend. The way you automatically alter the literacy practices you use given the context

of your writing is proof that genres exist all around us. In considering genres, one might question

how genres are created, and if new ones can continue to be made. Well, to prove that genres can,

indeed, be created in the modern setting, I will be analyzing the conventions and rhetorical

situation of comments on the subreddit r/photocritique in comparison to its antecedent genres,

showing that these comments can be classified as a “new genre.”

When tasked with the challenge of discovering an entire “new genre” in my writing class,

I was at first overwhelmed with the idea, as I really didn’t have a firm grasp about what genre

even is. However, as we continued to go over genre in class and as I read more about rhetorical

situations, I became less confused. For this project, I realized that I wanted to work with a genre

that would keep me interested for the weeks that I would be working on it, so I focused on

comments in a subreddit called r/photocritique. You might be wondering what r/photocritique is,

or even what a subreddit is, so let me explain. Reddit is a social media platform that is made up
of thousands of virtual groups called subreddits, where people go to post about information

specific to the subreddit they are in. Under every post within a subreddit is a forum where users

discuss, under the constraints of rules that are specific to the subreddit, what has been posted.

The subreddit r/photocritique is a place where users, who are mostly photographers, are able to

post their own photos for other photographers to critique, as well as critique photos themselves.

It serves as a learning ground for photographers at all levels and is meant to encourage people to

pursue photography as a career or hobby. What makes comments on posts in this subreddit a

“new genre” compared to antecedent genres, like articles analyzing art or comments in a

photography textbook, are the changes in audience, constraints, exigence, and the jargon used in

the rhetorical situations of the given genresr/photocritique comments.

As discussed in Laura Bolin Carroll’s essay Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward

Rhetorical Analysis, the audience, exigence, and constraints of rhetorical situations, along with

the argument of the composer are the main factors of rhetorical analysis1. In other words, these

are the conventions that categorize certain types of writing into certain genres. In considering

these types of conventions relative to r/photocritique comments, we can understand what aspects

of this type of comment makes it its own genre.

For our analysis of the rhetorical situation of our “new genre”, let's begin with the

constraints. Two rules, or constraints, of r/photocritique that are especially important in

creating conventions for the genre of these comments are the following:

1. Commentsthat comments must be critiques- no blind praise without constructive criticism.

2. Comments- and that comments must be nice- the community is about helping each other, not

making people feel bad about their photography2.

1 Bitzer, Lloyd. “The Rhetorical Situation.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968): 1–14. Rpt. in Martin J. Medhurst
and Thomas W. Benson, eds. Rhetorical Dimensions in Media. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1991, quoted in Laura
Bolin Carroll, Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps towards Rhetorical Analysis (Parlor Press, 2010).
2 “r/photocritique rules.” Reddit, www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/about/rules/.
With these rules enforced by moderators on the subreddit, most comments follow an identifiable

structure. Firstly, the comment compliments something about the photo, which satisfies the rule

about being kind, and then it is followed with constructive criticism. An example of a comment

that follows this general structure is from a post where a photographer is asking for critique on a

photographphoto of a mountain, specifically asking if the way he edited the photo is good. One

user responded:

“I really like this edit, actually! I think it’s great, and I wouldn't change it as far as editing goes. I

just wish this had been cropped out wider, maybe by another 15-20mm, and then it would be per-

fec-tion! Nice job though! Keep up the good work!”3

The As you can tell, the comment is encouraging, while also offering advice and using

photography specific jargon, like “cropped out wider, maybe by another 15-20mm.””, which

refers to the focal length, or distance from the lens to subject. This is the form that the majority

of r/photocritique comments take, based on the constraints enforced by moderators, as well as

using photography-specific jargon and understanding whothat their audience is not only the

OP(original poster), but also anyone on the subreddit, including moderators.

The audience of r/photocritique comments may initially seem to only be the person who

posted their photo requesting critique, but it is actually all photographers who are a part of the

subreddit, including moderators who supervise the comment section. The conventions of

this “new genre” are different from the conventions of antecedent genres. With this in mind,

composers post their comments with the understanding that literally anyone can view what they

are saying and that there are moderators who can punish you for breaking subreddit rules. The

beauty of r/photocritique is that using a social media website as a platform allows for the
3 light-chasing, January 20, 2020. Comment on “Saw this cool ring of clouds while walking around southern
Germany. Not 100% sure how I feel about the edit though.” r/photocritique (subreddit).
Reddit.https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/comments/erfgt1/saw_this_cool_ring_of_clouds_while_walking_aro
und/
audience to be widespread amongst any photographers with access to the internet. However, this

also likely draws an audience of younger adults, who are more savvy than older people at using

social media and the internet in general.

Now that we have a basic understanding of some of the conventions that make this “new

genre”, we can compare them to those of its antecedent genres to see what constitutes it being

entirely new.

In comparing r/photocritique comments to articles analyzing paintings, we can see that

while both share analytical purposes, they use different jargon and have different audiences. In

contrast to the audience of our “new genre”, the audience members of analytical articles of

paintings are likely painters themselves or older people who appreciate art. Because of this,

jargon is used that the intended audience would appreciate and that is specific to the content of

the article.different jargon is used to describe the content. For example, in the article

“Interpretation and Analysis of High Renaissance Portrait of Lisa Gherardini”4, the author

describes the famous painting Mona Lisa, saying it:

“exemplifies Leonardo's contribution to the art of oil painting, namely his mastery of sfumato.

This painterly technique involves the smooth, almost imperceptible, transition from one colour to

another, by means of ultra-subtle tonal gradations.”

TheAs you can see, the jargon used(sfumato, colour, and ultra-subtle tonal gradations) is

specific to the genre of articles critiquing paintings, and would just appear strange when put in

the context of a comment in r/photocritique.

In addition to the difference in jargon and audienceused between the two genres, they are

under different constraints, have different audiences, and have different composers. Articles

4 “Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) (1503-6).” Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci: Analysis, Interpretation, www.visual-arts-
cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm.
critiquing paintings are under the constraint of being professional and well enough written that a

publisher would want to publish the work. On the other hand, r/photocritique comments can be

made by anyone, regardless of expertise or quality of their comment as long as they follow the

rules of the subreddit. In addition to this, articles critiquing paintings go into much more depth in

analyzing the art and are typically much longer than any comments on r/photocritique posts.

Another equally informative comparison that can be made is between our “new genre”

and the antecedent genre of analytical paragraphs in photography textbooks. While they share

some conventions, theyThe audience of r/photocritique comments may initially only seem to be

the person who posted their photo requesting critique, but it is actually also all photographers

who are a part of the subreddit, including moderators who supervise the comment section. With

this in mind, composers post their comments with the understanding that literally anyone can

view what they are saying and that there are moderators who can punish you for breaking

subreddit rules. The beauty of r/photocritique is that using a social media website as a platform

allows for the audience of rhetorical situations to be widespread amongst any photographers with

access to the internet. However, this also likely draws an audience of younger adults, who are

more savvy than older people at using social media and the internet in general. In contrast, the

audience members of analytical articles of paintings are likely painters themselves, or older

people who appreciate art.

In comparing the genre of r/photocritique comments to the antecedent genre of

analytical paragraphs in photography textbooks, we can see that while they share some

conventions, they also differ in the audience and exigence of their rhetorical situations. In

photography textbooks, the audience members are people reading the textbook, oftentimesoften

times students in a photography class, who want to learn about photography. While this is similar
to how the audience members for comments in r/photocritique are users who are seeking to learn

more about photography, it is different in the sense that the audience is also the original poster of

the photo who is asking for specific critique.

To help you get a better understanding of how the audiences of these two genres are

different, let me give you an example. A Reddit user that goes by the username of metsadeer

posted a photograph of a squirrel in a bush that he wanted to be critiqued. One of the comments

that followed went like this:

“I really like it! Personally I would edit out the yellow thing in the bush. Since it has such a

strong yellow hue, I bet you can just colorcorrect it easily in programs such as Lightroom. Keep

it up!”5

It is hard to imagine exactly what this comment is talking about critique wise without

viewing the actual photograph, but you can see that the comment follows the general form set by

the constraints of the genre that I mentioned before. It, and it also directly addresses the

audience, saying “I bet you can just colorcorrect it easily in programs such as Lightroom”. The

“you” is referring to the original poster, metsadeer, who is the intended audience. However, it is

also important to recognise that anyone viewing the post is also part of the audience, including

myself. This is different from the audience of analytical paragraphs in photography textbooks

because r/photocritique comments have an audience that the comment is directly replying to,

while photography textbooks are just addressing a broad audience of photographers. This

difference in audience makes the tone of comments on r/photocritique much more personal and

encouraging than paragraphs in photography textbooks.

5 Liquidspacecat, October, 2019. Comment on “My first ever attempt at wildlife photography, any good? :)”
r/photocritique (subreddit).
Reddit.https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/comments/erfgt1/saw_this_cool_ring_of_clouds_while_walking_aro
und/
 To give you an idea of what text from a photography textbook that analyzes a photo

might look like, here is a brief example from Bryan Peterson’s book Understanding Exposure6,

in which he is analyzing one of his own photographs of a portrait of a woman:

“I chose to use the large lens opening of f/5.6 to keep the depth of field to a minimum. At

f/5.6 my light meter indicated a correct exposure for the light on her face.”

Again, it is hard to tell exactly what Peters is referring to without seeing the actual photograph

and having an idea of what the jargon he is using means. Nevertheless,, but this example serves

to show that the text is similar in the sense that both genrestexts use photography jargon to

explain their subject to the audience, but it is different becausein the sense that the composer is

addressing a wide range of audience members. Photography textbooks also have and has the

exigency of the author’s desire to teach people photography in order to sell his book and earn

money, rather than focusing on replying to one specific audience member, like in r/photocritique

comments where the exigency is a post requesting help.

While r/photocritique comments share some rhetorical similarities to its antecedent

genres, it can be safely said that its differences constitute it being a completely new genre.

Specifically speaking, the audience, exigence, and constraints of r/photocritique comments are

what make it unique. The rise of social media platforms, specifically Reddit, have allowed for

widespread communication amongst literally anyone with access to the internet, which in turn

has made it possible for new genres like r/photocritique comments to exist.

6 Peterson, Bryan. Understanding Exposure. Amphoto Books, 2016.