Soon, I will mark one year with Spot... No, a quick check shows that I missed the anniversary, August 2nd. That was the day I took the last photos I posted here, so it's a perfect world.
I have been thinking about photos, or rather, my photography that I'd like to think of as art as opposed to documentation, and in that, I am beginning to understand others who indulge the genre and are even more critical than I as to what constitutes photography as fine art. It's a hornet's nest of judgement calls having to do with more composition than observation, I suppose, and narrowing the field gives one something to do when not actually in the field snapping away. Just like my being coy when I really shouldn't bother you with this stuff anyway.
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Speaking of coy, I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes. Combine that with preoccupied, I wonder if it is too late to extend birthday greetings. You kow who you are.
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Another uncle has died. My mother's brother-in-law. Suddenly, but only because everyone thought he had turned a corner for the good. If you knew my Mom, you'd know how hard this is for her, first her younger brother last month and now this. I'll be headed out for the memorial service next week but the physical distance between family and myself during times like this makes me wish I lived closer.
There was a time when the death/wake/funeral span of time was shorter. Maybe it still is as a rule, yet it seems to me that ten days or two weeks is too long, even for an urn. Closure, it seems, is paramount even if it is elusive. Still, families are more spread out these days, with schedules too busy to pencil in a death.
I might have just kept my luggage packed.
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The above was written a couple days ago. Since then I have taken some pictures, and had some taken. Those of you who have befriended me elsewhere, I apologize for the duplication.
Test #4
This series is getting some notice. Rather, positive comments from some discriminating types. For my part, I'm glad to have them as a project for although this is the time of year I would normally be out photographing the field burns, the ones I have seen that haven't already been plowed under are far from the road. I hesitate to trespass and my zoom lens sucks. No doubt there will be more burning today and next week, so I will get the opportunity. But I'll take my flags along for the ride just in case.
Crown
Not for the squeamish. Long-timers will remember that my internal physiology is problematic. Everyone is talking and nobody is listening. Next week's procedure promises to be even more elaborate, including some stigmata points on the hands and feet. Can't wait.
All in service to art.
The second shot gives me the chills.
ReplyDeleteWhat constitutes photography as fine art?
ReplyDeleteWell, there's Ansel Adams - the darkroom work turned it into fine art, but he was a documentarian.
Contemporary fine art is pretty and/or abstract, taken with very expensive cameras. You can't command a price without splurging on high-end equipment or having some kind of gimmick, that makes it "art".
I spoke to a successful (sold his work) photography type friend recently - my camera will get a 10MB photo in camera raw, fine art is many times that - there's fine art file size, fine art prints, fine art presentation - all of that is a world onto itself.
Me, I take snapshots.
Eliz - What makes it fine art is only my determination that it is. The point I should be trying to make is that my definition, as it were, is changing. Whether it is for the better remains to be seen. Right now, framing and light and such, while still important, are not the elements I want to make a priority. It's more about other constructs that I add. This is probably a preference that comes from my background as a sculptor.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I understand what you are saying about high-end equipment and such, I don't quite buy it, as it is narrowing the potential of the medium too much.
I see a lot of gorgeous photography that is absolutely boring otherwise. It may have presented a challenge for the photographer yet it does nothing for me as a viewer. Mind you, for me this sort of work is closer to what you call snapshots. They serve a purpose, which I have nothing against. I've aspired to make those shots, but I wouldn't hang them in a gallery. Sell them? Yes, in a heartbeat.
Again, this is a personal journey, not a manifesto.
You used the phrase "fine art" - my friend lives in that world of wealthy collectors - some of them acquired his work.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about expensive presentation, positioning, an influential gallery, etc. Now that's fine art - it ain't gonna happen with my $300 camera, or even a $1500 one.
Now if you're talking about art for art's sake (not that I know anything about it), that's a different story.
I see the problem in my word choice. I may mean something closer to "art for art's sake," yet that doesn't quite ring true either, except that it does allow for me to assert that what I choose to call art is just that, and only for me. Admittedly, I may be over-schooled because I use the term "fine art" to avoid making a distinction between high art and low art, which on the face of it might seem a bit disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteStill, I think you sell that point-and-shoot tool of yours a bit short. Plenty of Polaroids have sold in the blue chip art market. Getting to that market is another matter entirely, and I suspect it has to do with many other factors besides tools, and sometimes even talent.
The only thing we really have any say in is how we use what we have while we try to improve upon what we are doing with it, whether that be a camera, welder's torch, paint brush, keyboard, etc.