Is Photography Art?

[bradly1101]

Cameras make good decisions. Anyone can pick one up, point, and press a button. Great shots result, even from my cheapy old phone. Before all this micro-electro-computational-mechanical wizardry there were of course many advancements [20 firsts in photography].

The early cameras didn’t even have viewfinders. Outside of the “camera obscura,” the first photo was taken in 1816, silver oxide responding to light and fixing the shadows.

Going back to those first photos, people didn’t generally aim cameras at things they didn’t find interesting, or beautiful, or striking. The scene was seen, then shot. An eye toward marvel, wonder, art, and/or curiosity, including how the photo might turn out, having to wait a while sometimes. Once viewed, I don’t know if I'm the only one, often the shots turn out better than I remembered seeing the scenes. The camera-machine does its job well.

From my photos you may have noticed that I do point-and-shoot photography along with the masses. Auto-mode. I never spend much time composing, often there isn’t any; the “golden hour” seems to fade quickly, long shadows don’t stay still very long, and birds (my favorite) fly swiftly.

My brother composes a lot (most?) of his shots carefully. He knows cameras so well that amazing composition comes naturally. Spending time adjusting with his eye, not so much the camera’s, produces incredible images. His photography site [home page uses Flash]: http://outlandimages.com/main.html
The non-Flash galleries (plus he has many, many prints and slides not shown, but incredible - I hope someday he digitizes it all, a huge task for a busy guy): http://outlandimages.com/galleries.php

Thanks to The Cloud, those earliest photos up to my brother’s latest will go on as long as humans do, along with all the other great creations of the eye, ear, and brain. A repository of knowledge, great words, images,... The ultimate global library.

So do I think it’s all art, the maybe trillions of images and their fixed shadows? I think it’s the most artsy art. A moment (all there is really) captured with a truth machine. Brushes are great, so are impressions, and all the rest. Photography is devotion to honesty (mostly, doctoring of course sometimes is done beyond the usual adjustments, and for artistic purposes).

A great episode [1hr.] of the six-part BBC series: “The Genius of Photography, Fixing the Shadows” including a demonstration of camera obscura. Seeing this years ago was the motivation for this post.

 

[BoomerD]

Photographs CAN be art...not when I take them, but...

Ansel Adams said, "You don't take a photograph, you make it."

 

[bradly1101]

[only click on this if b/w is fast]

This was a concert I attended of the 10,000 Maniacs in Pershing Square (this is the warm-up band).

It was post Natalie Merchant, and her old backup singer, Mary Ramsey, seemed to channel Natalie beyond perfectly and could play a fiddle like nobody's business. Talent like that reminds me of my Mom, Eljon, and others, the list goes on to about 6.5B names. I like to write, but 'cmon.

It was a night I'll never forget.

Duet - Mary(l) and Natalie(r):
https://youtu.be/xQtdwtlmp5s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ramsey

https://www.laparks.org/pershingsquare

As you may know, those things sticking out of the top of the old at&t tower (mid-r) are hoghorn microwave transceivers. Boy there's a lot I learned about those. They're pretty simple, acting like a french horn, the math was intense and fascinating.

http://www.southlandarchitecture.com/Building/3625/ATT-Tower.php

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_antenna#How_it_works

[8 shot horizontal and vertical panorama]
— at Pershing Square, Biltmore, Gas Company Tower...

 

[bradly1101]

Photographs CAN be art...not when I take them, but...

Ansel Adams said, "You don't take a photograph, you make it."

He waited patiently for just the right light. You kind of have to live in the place you're photographing, or get lucky.

 

[siriuus]

Art is in my opinion something which transports a certain deeper thought of the "artist". Something which makes you stop in a moment of wonder, makes you think. Doesnt have to be something beautiful or cost a lot of work.
Photography can catch a glimpse of a moment the viewer would never have been able to see for himself, similar to a drawing or a poem... so i guess it falls in the potential art category.

 

[shortylickens]

My art history teacher made something very clear in class: ANYTHING can be art. But not everything is good art. And we only study good art.

 

[FeuerFrei]

I see photography as art capture. Artfully frame the world around you and hit button. *Click* - you have art on your hands, or the foundation for it at least.

Now, it may take a bit of post-processing to make your photo worth sharing and something to admire.

 

[destrekor]

I see photography as art capture. Artfully frame the world around you and hit button. *Click* - you have art on your hands, or the foundation for it at least.

Now, it may take a bit of post-processing to make your photo worth sharing and something to admire.

Most people aren't aware that the tools they use are often applying their own filters to enhance the original photo. All smartphone cameras do, as well as all digital cameras in general, unless you set it to output in RAW format. Now on the better cameras you can fine-tune those auto-settings if you just need to quickly spit out decently-processed photos for quick work, like a lot of photojournalism. Time is of the essence unless it's a photo story.

Heck, even in the film days, if you took photos to the lab to get printed, that developer/print machine was enhancing the photos as best it could. Generally you could elect to not have that done, but you'd have to be paying attention. And in the black and white era, after the photo was taken, all the legwork was done in the darkroom.