The critique is the primary vehicle through which students get feedback on their work. Improvement in image making is almost always based upon the reactions we get from others after they look at and consider our work. Few of us could survive in the art world if we lived in a critical vacuum. We gain an important kind of objectivity in relation to our work when we listen to what others have to say about it. The photo critique also teaches students about visual literacy, that is the skill of finding meaning in images.
Visual literacy is a key component to living a free existence.
We live in a society where we are inundated by advertising and entertainment images. If we are unaware of how these images are made, how they are manipulated and how they influence our likes and dislikes, then we really can't make free decisions in areas as varied as what kind of breakfast cereal we buy or what kind of sexual partners we look for - not that I put those choices on the same level of importance. The point is, we need to know how images affect us and how they influence our lives and the photo critique is one of the few places where students can learn this. The kind of criticism we do in our classes is applied criticism - as opposed to theoretical criticism. Students are supposed to use the feedback to improve their work.