artist?

[Roger Hicks]

Google "Roger Hicks Final Analysis" and you'll see a somewhat patchy selection of the pictures I use in my column. Sometimes you just get a words-only mention that it's in the magazine, but other times you'll get at least the picture and often the column, or part of it, as well. Better still, subscribe to the magazine.

Anyone who can look at these pictures and argue that photography isn't art, and cannot be art, is probably beyond redemption.

There's also "Fine Art Photography" on our .eu site.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Erik van Straten]

So I don't quite understand your question.

Hi Roger,

I am a professional author. I write in the Dutch language. Writing in English is totally different, I know that.
However, to write "a regular weekly column" is (translated) in the Dutch language impossible, because it is a pleonasm. "Weekly" is regular, so the word "regular" is superfluous. I think it is wrong in the English language too, but I am not sure about that.

Best,

Erik.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hi Roger,

I am a professional author. I write in the Dutch language. Writing in English is totally different, I know that.
However, to write "a regular weekly column" is (translated) in the Dutch language impossible, because it is a pleonasm. "Weekly" is regular, so the word "regular" is superfluous. I think it is wrong in the English language too, but I am not sure about that.

Best,

Erik.

Dear Erik,

I agree that it comes close to a pleonasm, but I don't think it is one unless you are being unreasonably pedantic. I see it as more as a question of emphasis and clarity.

Then again, both Dutch and English are (very) Low German...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Erik van Straten]

both Dutch and English are (very) Low German...

About English I don't know, but Dutch is certainly not Low German.

Erik.

 

[kuuan]

with talk elsewhere of rff being mostly a gear forum and not so much a photography forum got me thinking a bit...
who here considers themselves to be an artist?
does being an artist impact your philosophy about gear? is gear just a means to an end or does it contribute to your art?
what stops us, as a group, from discussing photography/art?

I don't preceive rff as being gear dominated. Actually I became a regular here because I find more interesting photos and talk about photography and less about gear than in other forums that I used to be active before here.
asking myself if I consider myself an artist or not is an unwelcome distraction I don't subject myself to.
there is quite a bit of discussion about photography and art, thank you for that. If anyone feels there is too little, please start the threads that you have been missing

 

[Dogman]

Having read many essays that accompany pictures in monographs and photo collections, I've noticed something. This art stuff is an odd thing. It's something to be experienced.
Once you start philosophizing about it, discussing it, analyzing it, trying to give it new context, its aura fades like a badly fixed print.

 

[Roger Hicks]

About English I don't know, but Dutch is certainly not Low German.

Erik.

Dear Erik,

Oh, come on!

Yes it is. It's about as platt as plattdeutsch gets, possibly even platter (to use an English comparative). "Low German" is a Prussian reading of a cline of Germanic languages, an attempt to justify German unification. Plattdeutsch, Dutch and English really have a very great deal in common, though advocates of all three languages try to deny it.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Having read many essays that accompany pictures in monographs and photo collections, I've noticed something. This art stuff is an odd thing. It's something to be experienced.
Once you start philosophizing about it, discussing it, analyzing it, trying to give it new context, its aura fades like a badly fixed print.

Except for one thing. Few people would look at an isolated image with no text. The text is merely a way of justifying the drawing of a picture to others' attention. It can be more or less well done, but the mere existence of the text is important -- unless it's so bad it discourages more people than it encourages (cf. Pseuds' Corner in Private Eye).

Cheers,

R.

 

[mcfingon]

It shows that RFF is not all about camera gear if we are having a discussion about the relationships between German, Dutch and English...

 

[Erik van Straten]

Plattdeutsch, Dutch and English really have a very great deal in common.

Hello Roger,

What nonsense. The differences are much greater than the similarities.

Have you ever seen a book in Dutch or German? Could you read it?

Erik.

 

[Tompas]

(...) Plattdeutsch, Dutch and English really have a very great deal in common, though advocates of all three languages try to deny it.

That's true. Plattdüütsch is my second, English my third language -- which makes me understand Dutch up to a point (if it's not spoken too fast). And Dutch people usually understand Platt.

And one example for the Plattdüütsch-English relation, used with pleasure by a relative of mine to order his cups of tea in England:

Gev mi'n koppke tee!

He always gets his tea.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hello Roger,

What nonsense. The differences are much greater than the similarities.

Have you ever seen a book in Dutch or German? Could you read it?

Erik.

Dear Erik,

Or alternatively: What nonsense. The similarities are much greater than the differences.

Have you ever seen a book in Spanish, Italian, Catalan or Portuguese? Could you read it?

Of course I have seen books in many languages. I can make more sense of some than of others: I find Catalan or mediaeval Italian easier than Portuguese or modern Italian. And I can see the similarities between different languages. The only big barriers are alphabets: I can read (and to a tiny extent understand) Maltese, but not Palestinian Arabic (the nearest language to Maltese). This is because Maltese uses the Roman alphabet.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

That's true. Plattdüütsch is my second, English my third language -- which makes me understand Dutch up to a point (if it's not spoken too fast). And Dutch people usually understand Platt.

And one example for the Plattdüütsch-English relation, used with pleasure by a relative of mine to order his cups of tea in England:

Gev mi'n koppke tee!

He always gets his tea.

Dear Thomas,

Well, yes. As a child I lived in Malta; now I live in France. My daughter is a professional translator. The relationships between languages (and dialects, a dialect being defined as "a language with an army and a navy"), are a common topic of conversation.

Cheers,

R.

 

[TXForester]

There is a gear, and process, component to this site. But it seems to me that most here feel gear (and film, chemistry, paper etc.) are a means to achieve our various photographic goals.

While sometimes we compare lenses to each other, often the question is which lens will help me get the look I want? People on other sites will tell you that you need the latest DSLR and a ton of the latest lenses and porters to carry it. But here people talk of carrying one body and one lens, and often far from cutting edge technology, because we are going for a look. Does not matter if we call ourselves artists, or photojournalists any other type of photographer. So I think art, or whatever we want to produce, influences gear choice more than camera/lens specifications.

 

[Erik van Straten]

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[TXForester]

can a hobbyist be an artist?

Why not? If a work is considered art, does it matter if a hobbyist created it or somebody who gets paid for the work?

If we were discussing another medium, then we might not ask the question. Somebody that draws or paints we may call an artist even if they don't do it for a living. I don't see why this can't be applied to photography hobbyists.

 

[ptpdprinter]

Since when does an artist have to sell his work to qualify as an artist? Does an artist have to not only sell his work, but also support himself solely from his work? The whole idea is ludicrous. Artists who are able to support themselves from their work are the exception, not the rule.

 

[jsrockit]

Since when does an artist have to sell his work to qualify as an artist? Does an artist have to not only sell his work, but also support himself solely from his work? The whole idea is ludicrous. Artists who are able to support themselves from their work are the exception, not the rule.

As ludicrous as this may seem, I think you might see this attitude in the US more than you'd think. Go ahead call yourself an artist to random people... they will assume that you do it for a living in the US. I'm not saying it is right, but it is a prevalent attitude here.

 

[daveoo]

Friedrich Nietzsche
“No artist tolerates reality.”

A little absolute but interesting to me.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hi Roger,

Of course, residents of border regions can talk to each other, regardless of their nationality, but that is trivial. Knowing a language other than your mother tongue language means actively and passively managing that other language so that you can communicate with the people who have this other language as mother tongue, even if you do not live in a border region.


Erik.

Dear Erik,

But I'm not just talking about borders. I'm talking about whole languages. I can just about adequately communicate in Spanish -- AFTER I explain that I met my wife in California and my Spanish is therefore Mexican. Once they're not expecting perfection, there are far fewer problems. By the same token, Frances points out that the people who taught her French had learned it in Canada...

Can I write in German, Dutch or Spanish? No. Nor even (well) in French. But literary excellence is not the norm in any language.

Cheers,

R.