Jason Schwartzman MUST have been miffed when he saw the State of Art 2003 Best Album went to Phantom Planet, a band that either he left on bad terms with or a band who kicked him out because of "creative differences". In fact, Schwartzman must have been so impacted that he decided to make an album that would easily make it into contention for the best album of 2007 on the State of Art.

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The finest selection of artists grace this edition of The Renascent, which makes a strong case for the elevation of photography as a fine art. The editors wrote the following in the prelude to the works:

None of the arts aim to imitate life exactly. It could not be considered art without at least some alteration or emphasis added to the reality. Photography, therefore, being arguably the most realistic of the arts, cannot rely on technique to make its product artistic like painting or music might for instance. On the contrary, its proximity to reality is what many find interesting about photography—“that really happened!?”is the mark of a thoroughly engaged audience.

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