Artists don't care about equipment? Bulls--t!

[DominikDUK]

The best tool is often not the priciest but simple the most practical.
Tool talk is not restricted to art schools, there are plenty of examples of famous artists that were obsessed with their tools. Renaissance and Baroque painters were absolutely obsessed with their tools.

BTW being able to improvise does not mean that one doesn't talk about tools or hoping not to have to improvise in the future.

I wouldn't pay $50 for a pencil either but I am quiet willing to shell out a lot of money for the right paper (total paper fetishist).
The whole Apple vs... discussion is obsessing about a tool brand and is not restricted to photographers or artists.

Dominik

 

[L David Tomei]

My wife is an artist as are many of her friends and it isn't odd for them to obsess over the particular make of (e.g.) mason's trowel. As mentioned in another thread on what constitutes a "bad" lens, there is a parallel between artist's tools and photographic equipment. They are all tools to create something. For photographers, it is an image, and the selection of a camera/lens to produce an image. For many photographers, this means it isn't always picking the optically finest Leica. I think that when some say equipment doesn't matter, they perhaps overstate the point in response to the wide spread obsession with camera/lens performance.

 

[Sparrow]

Artists are the same as Photographers, simply stereotypes to be used in pointless discussions on the interweb

 

[Roger Hicks]

"I'll take pictures with whatever I can get" (= "Don't care")

"I'd rather use a Leica than a Holga [or vice versa]" (= "Do care")

Most of us, surely, can identify with both. For the first, if I've no Leica, I'll use (say) an old Pentax SV, though I might draw the line at a camera 'phone. For the second, yes, I'd rather use my Kowa SLR than my Lyubitel TLR.

An artist uses the tools he needs to create his art. To pretend that people have no preferences, or that the cost of tools is irrelevant, is downright feeble-minded. It is equally feeble-minded to pretend that even a majority of artists, let alone all, are obsessed with their tools.

When I worked in a hire studio in London in the 1970s, I met quite a number of reasonably 'big name' photographers, and as a journalist, I've met many more since. Most have/had preferences, and talk about equipment and materials is/was by no means unusual. But obsession? Hardly.

Nothing is perfect. We buy the closest we can find to what meets our personal requirements. It's always a question of varying compromises. As for the $73 pencil, I'm prepared to believe that some people really get off on using such things, and that as a result, they may even make better pictures. If they don't, who cares?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I can only speak from recent and personal experience after resuming watercolour painting after a break of ten years.
Paper? Really only three grades and each performs differently but otherwise not much to worry about. Each manufacturer's product is pretty much the same as any other once it has paint on it.
Paints? One teacher says only use Artist grade, the other (a professional who earns his living from selling his art) says Student grade is good enough unless you're turning professional. Until then, don't worry.
Brushes? Both teachers use synthetic brushes or a mix of Squirrel and synthetic. I bought two very expensive pure Russian Sable brushes (the Leicas of the brush world) to try them out as "everyone" says they're the "best", but actually my Prolene synthetic brushes handle better for my taste and needs. Comparison? Try $20 compared to $94.

So although I'm seeing interest in having "good" tools and equipment I'm certainly not seeing "obsession" over them. By amateurs or professionals. And the "best" may not be the best after all - for my needs, anyway.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Man...so freakin what.

This is you:

(via xkcd)

I really could care less. Same with anything else out there, some people will obsess over the technicalities and others won't. I know a lot of professional artists who do not obsess over equipment, and others who do. Just do your thing and make some good photos however you want. Obviously, as an internet board, people will come here because they ARE obsessed about this stuff so that is the general consensus. That is not how it is in the real world. Sure, there are plenty of people like that, but who are you to say that all artists obsess over equipment. That's simply not the case, as much as you'd want it to be. Heck, there are plenty of photographers (I don't understand why you don't consider us artists?) who don't care about equipment.

So, you're preaching to the choir here, on this online photography forum where people come to discuss 50-year-old manual-focus film-eating rangefinder cameras. But at the same time, don't tell people how to make their art, especially if they're not asking for your advice. Let them do it their way.

I liked the cartoon - it was amusing - but the venom accompanying it was unwarranted.

 

[DominikDUK]

Leigh only three grades is an understatement there are a lot more. Different weight, different surfaces, differences in absorbtion rate, etc... wether its Chinese watercolour Paper,Nepalese Kalahari paper or Hahnemühle Aquarell etc... all these parameter play a role in defininig the end result.

A lot of pro use cheap paint because its cheap and they use a lot of it.
A highly pigmented paint looks very different to paint with smaller amount of pigment not better just different and I would advise any beginner to use both for different effect.

But I agree obsession is maybe too hard a word in most cases. But denying the fact that people (any profession) are talking about the merits of certain tools over others is ludicrous.

Dominik

 

[Steinberg2010]

Leigh only three grades is an understatement there are a lot more. Different weight, different surfaces, differences in absorbtion rate, etc... wether its Chinese watercolour Paper,Nepalese Kalahari paper or Hahnemühle Aquarell etc... all these parameter play a role in defininig the end result.

A lot of pro use cheap paint because its cheap and they use a lot of it.
A highly pigmented paint looks very different to paint with smaller amount of pigment not better just different and I would advise any beginner to use both for different effect.

But I agree obsession is maybe too hard a word in most cases. But denying the fact that people (any profession) are talking about the merits of certain tools over others is ludicrous.

Dominik

I strongly agree – I'm a semi-pro musician (as in a student at the moment, but working next year as a full-time performer). Some of my friends are orchestral players and you can hear them debate varying strengths of reeds for their clarinets, mouthpiece types etc.

I'm an organist myself and organists have a reputation for talking about different tracker actions versus electric/electro-pneumatic, wind pressures etc. I'm sure most creative professionals are interested in the merits of different equipment that they use. It would seem crazy not to be aware of the various options available to you...

~S

 

[Spyro]

ever heard chefs talking about their knives? dont think it qualifies as obsessing but they can definitely go on for a while

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Isn't this whole discussion really about egotism? "I have a better camera than you"; "I have more pencils than you"; "I've been published more often than you"; "I've been to more exotic locations than you".

Wouldn't it be so much more fun, if we all just concentrated on sharing our knowledge in a friendly way (as do a lot of the posters here)?

Yep, I know, I'm living in a dream world...:angel:

 

[PKR]

I guess the engineers parallel to this is the venerable HP-15C calculator.
Born in 1982 and discontinued in 1989 then reintroduced this year after a 7 year campaign and 15,000 signatures:

The HP-15C achieved a similar cult status to that detailed for the Blackwing pencil, with e-bay auctions hitting $485

One of theses helped me through my degree exams thanks to it's complex number handling and matrix maths.
Later it fell out of use as more sophisticated calculators such as the HP-41CX and HP-48 took over.
But as computers became common-place, the advanced programming of a calculator was largely redundant.

Now 30 years later, a small easy to use calculator is making a comeback for those pencil ( see this is relevant ) to post-it pad quick calculations.
HP did a limited run of 10,000 units which were frantically snapped up , as they struggled to meet demand.

Everyone knows that the guys who pack the old 32s are way cool..

 

[haempe]

Anyone can make a "science" out of everything.

But this say nothing about anything other than the person, who did.

In the usual cases obsession over things is no virtue, but vice.

 

[Merkin]

a painter obsessing over brushes, paints, and canvas, or an illustrator obsessing over pencils and paper is more akin to a photographer obsessing over film, paper, and chemicals than cameras. Obsessing over cameras (especially camera bodies, lenses are a bit of a grey area) is like a painter obsessing over easels. How many of the gear obsessed painters that yall know go through as many different easels as a lot of photographers go through camera bodies?

 

[MCTuomey]

If i spent more time shooting and less time on the internet obsessing over equipment, I'm pretty certain I'd improve my skills, and produce more and better photos than otherwise.

Gotta go

 

[Spyro]

If i spent more time shooting and less time on the internet obsessing over equipment, I'm pretty certain I'd improve my skills, and produce more and better photos than otherwise.

Gotta go

whatever works best for you
personally I dont see anything wrong with a bit of gear obsession, it's just a hobby within a hobby. I find it quite interesting and relaxing actually
(absession-relaxing, sounds oxymoron and yet somehow it works for me)

 

[bobbyrab]

If you believe there is some truth that most men show traits of autism, then photographers have a higher rate than most. Let's be honest here, I was first drawn to photography when my parents started getting the Observer newspaper on a Sunday which had a fantastic colour supplement in the age of commissioned photojournalism and I was captivated by the still images, but I also thought the adverts for the Olympus Om1 was seriously cool as well, how many Noctillux owners buy it for the unique way it renders, and how many because it goes to 1 (the inverse of spinal taps 11). I don't deny it, I occasionally get my Hassleblad out of its bag just to look at the thing, strangely I don't have the same affection for my Canon digital, possibly because they're work cameras, but more likely they don't have the mechanical purity that I find appealing. If it wasn't cameras it would be hifi or cars, the ultimate hifi gadget is the turntable, it has the engineering, exotic materials, meaningful numbers high and low, and there are various staging posts along the way that confer exclusive knowledge to those in the know. Sound familiar. The ultimate camera geek, gaffer tape ninjas, because gaffer tape really make the camera invisible, and it lets other photographers know your a serious photographer and your camera is nothing more than a means to an end. Actually that would be good, has anyone come across an artist with a gaffer taped brush?

 

[dave lackey]

I worked with a very talented modern sculptor for two years who does public art on a fairly large scale. The tools were welders, steel cutting gear, drills etc and some equipment to work with timber ... not to mention his very high tech CAD drawing program on his Mac where his ideas came to life. He only cared if it all worked properly and the important thing to him was the final product ... I never saw him getting excited or obsessive about the tools we used.

So to me, Chris's comments are a generalisation based purely on his own observations!

Keith, I understand that your comment is also based on your own observations. Chris has his. I agree with both you.

 

[Jack Conrad]

obsession (əbˈsɛʃən) — n 1. psychiatry: a persistent idea or impulse that continually forces its way into consciousness, often associated with anxiety and mental illness 2. a persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling 3. the act of obsessing or the state of being obsessed.

Hmmm... that's a pretty good running definition for "artist."
​

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Leigh only three grades is an understatement there are a lot more. Different weight, different surfaces, differences in absorbtion rate, etc... wether its Chinese watercolour Paper,Nepalese Kalahari paper or Hahnemühle Aquarell etc... all these parameter play a role in defininig the end result.
Dominik

Well, I was talking about watercolours and I was talking about my own experiences so although I take your point, within the context of my response I was correct. I wasn't talking about the broad spectrum of art genres but of one particular method and trying to relate that to the original post by Chris. Maybe I missed the point - my wife says I do that often.

 

[I Love Film]

There are millions of people walking around with teacher's degrees.

Half of the "teachers" in my son's New York City school can't spell, there are ten or twenty spelling errors in every report they send to me.

Do you criticize your doctor for saying he has a medical degree?