My new scanner can do slides, my old eyes have trouble selectiong the size, hence the extra black border. A Couple years back I wrote an interactive dicussion column call “Traditional Photographic Art” on Nikonians. I’ve had this blog now for a few weeks and have been milling over thoughts on where to go with it. Those who read my old column know that I strayed far in some peoples mind from photographic art. But in this multi tasking world I think everything is an image. To me I’m focused on one thing. Image not to be confused with spin or prosumer photos.
The latest new and improved “camera” will not take better photos. It is the photographer who takes the photo or better it is the artist that makes the negative. So this blog will be about the artist who creates, primarilly with film. recently I was at an opening and I was introduced to someone. I inquired are you a photographer, before they could answer someone chimed in she has a camera of course she is an artist. Well never being one to hold my tonge I replied so if I have a paint brush does that make me Picasso? It wasn’t well recieved. My point and my thoughts here are what makes one person an artist and another a photographer or one who has a camera. Is that Eve’s Apple or food for thought. Comments welcome on the image and on my ramblings, be nice and be honest. this blog will change haphasordly for a while as I find direction. Those of you who have read me in the past know that I enjoy rambling and metaphors. Philosophy and Photography often merge. Please take time to visit my website. Its late. enjoy pjc
I often have a camera, sometimes i’m a photographer, sometimes i am an artist, sometimes just a bozo with a camera. I think it depends on my mood ( or what I have been drinking ). MLS
Hello Michael,
What have you been drinking? How ‘s life on the West Coast? We’re all bozos with cameras at times but there is someting that I am trying to put my /your finger on [don’t even think to say the shutter] to start the thought process. Everyone has creative moments, well most everyone. But what make’s creativety the dominate factor?
Thanks for stopping by and being the first. enjoy pjc
Hello Peter.
Good to hear from you. I love the idea of your blog and hope to spend some time here. Sorry nothing much to say for now, just wanted to say ‘Hey’. Doing a lot of home improvement projects this summer and I’m planning to incorporate some photography into the home ‘chores’. Got to head for work now I’ll write again later.
Steve Kacala
augustimages.com
Hi Steve,
Off to a slow start here, but I expect to stir the pot soon. enjoy pjc
Hi Peter,
I can’t wait to think of something meaningful to add to your blog. For now, let me say I have a camera, but I don’t consider myself an artist. I’ve always viewed it as a tool for documentation, not as a tool for art. You’re changing my ideas on this….but I have no skill, other than to point and shoot. But now that my attitude towards the process is changing, perhaps my skill and the resulting images will follow? LEO
Leslie,
Skill is developed. Documentation is also art. Diane Arbus considered herself a documentary photographer. It’s all about recording or commenting visually. enjoy pjc
When photography first came about in the 1850s, the portrait painters decried the new medium, fearing that it would render their talents useless . As time has proven, there will always be room for fine artists, whether with a brush or a camera. To paint requires a certain amount of talent and vision, while photography, although dealing with the same values of light and shadow, has been reduced to a “point and click” situation by the advertising community. Oddly enough, George Eastman himself democratized photography for the masses with his “You push the button, we do the rest” advertising campaigns. The general public (as well as some of those who buy photography) fail to see the talent required or even have an apppreciation for the craft that so many of us have taken so long to learn, if indeed not perfect.
Having said all that, I still marvel at turning on the lights after processing some large format film and finding an image floating in the tray. Sometimes it’s a good image, sometimes not so much, but I like it, and plan to keep going the “old way” until the technology or lack of real films and papers force me to turn to something approximating a real job…
Thanks RJ. A real job now there is a concept. enjoy pjc
Re:art and documentation and “If I have a paint brush does that make me Picasso?”… No, but you could be Rockwell. For a long time (and for some, even today) Norman Rockwell was not considered an artist, “only” an illustrator. But who can deny that his artistic vision and portrayal of the Five Freedoms has inspired our own vision of what is America today?
food for thought…I hadn’t thought of that