What makes photographs poor?

The problem is that there are too many handles where all that there is, is a pretty picture and nothing more.

What I keep noticing in a lot of photography is a lot of pressure to be very profound. One doesn't need to be. There could be an occasion where you are confronted by a genuinely lovely scene and maybe you just want to photograph it for the sake of it being lovely. I don't think you need to infuse profundity into it. But at the same time, there is a difference between simplicity and triteness. When you see something trite, you say, oh my God, gimme a break.

The business we are in is a business of communication. Whether you are trying to communicate something profound or something very straightforward, the question is always: is the point getting made simply, or does it require excessive effort to land?