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But is it Art?
Ever since Sir John Herschel first used the term in 1839, people have been arguing about photography and art. Without going into this perennial question too deeply, I will put my position and move on: photography is not art, any more than painting is art. Most photographs are just pictures. But then again, so are most paintings. Painting is a technology which many artists use to express their art. Children paint, so do art therapists...so in fact do elephants! Are any children artist? Probably not. Art therapists? Some are, but it isn’t the point of what they do, and few of their patients, though they express their feelings in painting, will ever become artists...it isn’t what they are using the medium for. As for elephants, they do produce some remarkable and attractive pictures, but no-one would consider them Artists. Substitute “camera” for “paint” and the same arguments holds good. Photography is a technology which many artists have adopted to express their art, but most photographs are not Artists. There is one significant difference between painting, sculpture and drawing and so on: in painting, sculpture, even music, a work of art or a masterpiece never happens by accident. Put a camera in anyone’s hands, or even leave on running unattended using a time-lapse mechanism, and wonderful, memorable works can happen by chance, produced out of ignorance by little more than luck. This is a clue to the difference between a good photograph and a good photographer. A good photographer is one whose typical photographs are...good; their good images are not just a matter of luck, but of skill. That isn’t to say a good photographer is necessarily an artist, but it gives us a starting point to explore the idea. But what makes a good photo? There are many books and tip sheets available to answer that question, and they are pretty consistent. have a look at the excellent tips on www.betterphoto.com under their Contest tab for a concise and typical advice sheet. Follow these tips, apply the advice to your photography, choose interesting subjects and you will produce a very high proportion of pictures that people will admire. Where have these tips come from? They are just a few technical tips about focus and exposure added to the very same rules of composition that every budding artist learns at art school. The Golden Mean, the Rule of Thirds, perspective, leading lines, balance and counterbalance, light and shade, subject placement, point of view and so on. Producing a very high proportion of technically competent photos of interesting subjects entitles you to call yourself a good photographer; the same can be said of a painter. Something more is needed before the title “artist” is applied, unless you are willing to accept the row after row of men and women turning out land and seascape paintings in factories as artists. One village of such “artists” in southern China exports about five million paintings a year, many of them copies of famous masterpieces. The fastest workers can turn out as many as 30 paintings a day. Good, competent paintings, sure. Art? I don’t think so. The hallmark of Art is the individuality of the artist. Not originality (most works in any branch of the arts are derivative), but creativity and intent. The artist understands the technology with which they are working well enough to achieve the ends they desire. A Master may transcend the limitations of the medium, whether paint or canvas or film. The end product is a Work of Art. But there is no guarantee that even a Master Artist will finish with a Great Work, a Masterpiece, or even something as good as that casual snapshot taken by your mate’s kid at the beach... but it will be Art. |
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This intel was contributed by David Rich
David Rich
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May, 2012
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