Mario Testino Exhibit Review

 Mario Testino Exhibit, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

While beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, Testino's work doesn't really make you feel. It doesn't take your breath away and cause you to stop in wonder. It doesn't transport you to another plane, and once you leave the exhibit, you don't feel detached from the world and emotionally exhausted. However, it did make me think about the definition of art, and what it actually means to create a piece. After all, just because Testino hit the button on the camera does that make him the true artist? Because the pieces are mainly from magazines, you can't be sure who is actually thinking of the concept or doing the post shooting edits. How much can he actually be credited to? Going to the exhibit is essentially like flipping through pages in a magazine in the Classics section of the library. While beautiful, you soon become as disinterested as the models hanging on the walls and have to wonder why something, while pretty to look at, is located in somewhere that specializes in beautiful, timeless, challenging, thought provoking art.