The Photographer as Artist

[Penceler]

kodachrome...

insanity.

Provia.

 

[__jc]

So you can be an artist without creating art but can you create art without being an artist?

If, as proposed before, we accept the definition of an artist as being a person who creates art (a semi-retired Duchamp notwithstanding), then the act of creating art by definition makes you an artist - and this applies equally if you are a gorilla.

 

[fireblade]

If you want art with photography you have to manipulate the image entirely different to what the reality of it was.
Art is to create with your imagination and skill, ie: a painting, a sculpture, a musical piece.
To click a shutter is not art. Nor is framing an image, composing the image etc...that's just photography.

 

[Doug]

Well, Vincenzo, that's a very provocative statement. Perhaps a little trollish. I do hope responses will be calm and well-considered. 🙂

 

[fireblade]

Well, Vincenzo, that's a very provocative statement. Perhaps a little trollish. I do hope responses will be calm and well-considered. 🙂

*ouch*
Trollish?, please don't read like that, more like the direct, take no prisoner Aussie style of thought/reply 🙂
I can see how certain photographers may see themselves as artists, and that's fine, but my reply was in reference to the true meaning of art derived from latin.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

If you want art with photography you have to manipulate the image entirely different to what the reality of it was.
Art is to create with your imagination and skill, ie: a painting, a sculpture, a musical piece.
To click a shutter is not art. Nor is framing an image, composing the image etc...that's just photography.

I'm always amazed how many photographers truly don't have any respect for photography as art. This is a question that was settled a century ago in the art world when museums began collecting photography, art schools began teaching it, and galleries started selling it.

By your definition, many of the paintings done through history weren't art since many were realistic depictions of what the artist saw in front of him. One could argue that, prior to Impressionism, no painter had ever created a work of art.

 

[lawrence]

If you want art with photography you have to manipulate the image entirely different to what the reality of it was.

All photographs are 'different to what the reality of it was' as perceived by a human being. Photographs tend to be two dimensional, sharp or blurred, small or large, taken with different focal length lenses from different perspectives and so on. All photography manipulates reality relative to the way we see it although some do this in a more obvious way than others.

 

[robert blu]

I'm trying to learn watercolour painting. But my paintings are not art, they are just exercises more or less well made. Therefore I assume not each painting is art as not all drawing made are art. In the same way not all photographs are art.
So I'm back to my previously posted questio: when a photographer becomes an artist?
Famous italian photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin always says to be a photographer, not an artist!
robert
PS: and od course all of this has no relation with the tool, digital or analog...

 

[dave lackey]

We are given life to live it. Only now, looking back over six decades am I just now beginning to see a design in my "quilt of life", one panel at the time. I am beginning to see connections that I never saw before. I am looking forward to seeing the whole design but there is living yet to come and the reveal cannot happen until it is done.

Yes, I believe we are all artists of our own lives. Not that we have real control though. In fact, I argue that we have very little control. So, if I post a photo that I think is wonderful art, there are always those who disagree. It seems art is in the eyes of the beholder. Digital images or film images. Does it matter? Personally I feel better about my film processing but I have no intention of printing... It just doesn't interest me nor can I afford it. I let professionals do that.

But art takes many forms. Print? Digital image on a screen? A life lived? How about writing? Is a poem written with a fountain pen better than one typed on a keyboard? No, but for me, a fountain pen is the better process. Indeed, like Robert's watercolor drawings, it is a way of life! To me, watching Robert and others on this forum work magic with photographs, drawings, writings, and creative endeavors of all sorts is art to me.

The process of film photography is a beautiful way of life for me. I only wish I had more time and energy for it. Digital photography is wonderful,it is just different. But nothing stirs my thoughts and emotions like a Kodachrome image.

 

[Bill Clark]

Kodachrome by Paul Simon:


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZpaNJqF4po

Simon & Garfinkel Greatest Hits:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NJe3dQ8haoU

 

[dave lackey]

Cool, Bill...

Just google Kodachrome and go here

https://www.google.com/search?q=kod...FvIvMAhWBRiYKHS9PCscQ_AUICSgC&biw=320&bih=460

It seems to me, each of these is a work of art and taken together, a really nice work.

 

[Bill Clark]

How about that red Chevy wagon!

 

[kuuan]

"now is that work of art? it is, if you say it is."
quote from a documentary "Duffy: The man who shot the Sixties", he refers to an electrical plug on the wall of the gallery where his photos are about to be exhibited, min 54:35: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyRPfevrb1k

 

[BillBingham2]

kodachrome...

Bright colors, greens of summers, all the worlds a sunny day.

After losing access to my Darkroom (moving to NYC) I shot slide film for myself because I felt it gave me the most control over the final image.

I feel love digital as a medium for that same reason. What I see is close enough and if I want to tweak it then I can spend the time/money to make it so.

I've come to accept some digital cameras because I can persuade them to work that way. The vast majority meh. They feel like over sized P&S cameras from the 90's.

B2 (;->

 

[CK Dexter Haven]

If you want art with photography you have to manipulate the image entirely different to what the reality of it was.
Art is to create with your imagination and skill, ie: a painting, a sculpture, a musical piece.
To click a shutter is not art. Nor is framing an image, composing the image etc...that's just photography.

This seems a bit 'unconsidered.'

Photography is/can be a combination of elements. The 'art' (as you seem to characterize it) might be in the creation and staging of the tableau in front of the lens. And, then, the capture is just the final piece of the execution.

But, even if you don't feel that is true — what of someone like William Eggleston? Not an "artist?" He, essentially, FINDS subject matter, and then does nothing (personally) with the chromes. He's not the printer. So, nothing 'transformative' occurs after the capture. Who, then, is a photographer and 'artist?' Man Ray? Do you really have to be a dadaist?

You seem to suggest some random endeavors ARE more artistic, but a person can cut a log in half and call that 'sculpture.' Or, push an arpeggiator button on a sequencer and call that 'music.' Or splash paint on a canvas and call that 'painting.' How are any of those efforts more valid than, say, what Cindy Sherman did?

 

[nongfuspring]

Analog or Digital, does it makes a difference as far as art?

No. The correlation between wether something is or isn't art and the medium through which it's produced is a non-sequitur.

There is no relationship whatsoever.

 

[Erik van Straten]

Turners are no weather reports, they are action painting avant la lettre.

Erik.

 

[daveleo]

It's not art until (1) you are dead and (2) someone writes a $10,000 check for it.

🙂

 

[tunalegs]

Working with film makes me feel more like a craftsman - it has no effect on the art portion of the work, whatever that may be. Too many people conflate art and craft these days, but I still see them as distinct.

As an illustrator I put a lot of time and skill into crafting images, but hardly any of these are what I would consider "art". On the other hand it seems quite a few people think that creating any sort of image makes them an artist. 🙄

 

[calebarchie]

I haven't bothered to read through the thread. But art to me has always been just about saying something esp having studied a little art history. You can say something with anything, even dunny readymades say much more than technically perfect crafted prints.

Reminds me of the Salon and Salon des Refusés. Choose your camp.