Defending Daniel Arnold

from Artslant, May, 2014

I wrote this essay about the photographer Daniel Arnold in 2014. I am a better writer now, I think/hope.

When I first sat down to write this essay I felt compelled to defend Daniel Arnold's work, in light of the comments recently posted on his Instagram. Now coming back to it three weeks later, there's much more to defend, after he had a one day sale that was covered by Forbes. I don’t believe art needs defending, in large part because art has no inherent purpose, so therefore exists beyond justification. To defend art is to give credence to accusations levelled against it, and in the case of Arnold, the accusations are silly, and absurd.