Is photography an art or just a medium?

[robbins.photo]

That morning, with his 40 posts, photoguy99 set off on his quest: To expose the community and discuss things in which shall not be spoke. It was a good morning. Photoguy99 was later played by Kevin Bacon in the movie version of the story.

Wait, the angsty misunderstood Kevin Bacon in Footloose or the evil mastermind from Xmen?

was kevin bacon in Xmen?!

Yup, xmen first class. I guess all the other actors insisted they give him the part so they could lower their bacon number.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[photoguy99]

Not really a Rand fan, but it'll do. It's not about me, right?

Can a photograph help us to integrate up an understanding of the metaphysical, to grasp what is too big, too complex, to grasp? Can it help us develop a summary idea of things outside our actual grasp, so that we can expand ourselves, can grow, and can live more fully, better, and in a fashion more aligned with what we aspire to?

I think so. I've never noticed a photograph literally changing my life, but a much as any other art, photographs have informed that wordless abstraction that lives behind the mind, that in turn informs the way I live my life, and think. I can think of many iconic pictures that have subtly changed how I understand myself and my place in society and in the universe. I'm a modern rational guy, so it's always going to be pretty small, pretty incremental, but it happens.

So. yeah. Per Rand's ideas, I have experienced photographs as Art with a capital A.

 

[AlanKlein]

Photography is the only true art.

 

[Braineack]

I've never once argued that a photograph is not or can't be art.

but here's Rand on photography:

A certain type of confusion about the relationship between scientific discoveries and art, leads to a frequently asked question: Is photography an art? The answer is: No. It is a technical, not a creative, skill. Art requires a selective re-creation. A camera cannot perform the basic task of painting: a visual conceptualization, i.e., the creation of a concrete in terms of abstract essentials. The selection of camera angles, lighting or lenses is merely a selection of the means to reproduce various aspects of the given, i.e., of an existing concrete. There is an artistic element in some photographs, which is the result of such selectivity as the photographer can exercise, and some of them can be very beautiful—but the same artistic element (purposeful selectivity) is present in many utilitarian products: in the better kinds of furniture, dress design, automobiles, packaging, etc. The commercial art work in ads (or posters or postage stamps) is frequently done by real artists and has greater esthetic value than many paintings, but utilitarian objects cannot be classified as works of art.

 

[photoguy99]

Rand seems to be contradicting herself. Art is defined in terms of what it does in one passage and how it is made in the second. The idea that art has anything to do with how it is made is pretty dated, and was pretty dated when she was writing. "Fountain" in 1917 is an obvious direct challenge to the idea that making has anything to do with art, when Rand would have been about 12.

Still, this remains a fundamental issue. Need there be, basically, a creative act to make art? Is so, photography has a problem. This is usually the root of any claim that photography isn't art, and it usually leaves actual artists pretty confused.

I more or less stand with the modern idea that Art is defined by what it does, rather than how it is made.

 

[Braineack]

Yeah that quote is where I part ways a bit.--but I completely get the point she was trying to make--and i agree with your points.

 

[jake337]

Why does it have to be one or the other? Can it not be both?

It is both. Art can be the practice and the end result.

 

[slackercruster]

Listen up...and I'm only go to say this one more time.

If there was no judgment involved and one photo was as good as the next...photography would not be an art.

But whenever judgment is involved, there is also 'art' involved. This could be 'technical art' or' artistic art' but in either case talent or art is injected into the equation.

 

[robbins.photo]

Listen up...and I'm only go to say this one more time.

If there was no judgment involved and one photo was as good as the next...photography would not be an art.

But whenever judgment is involved, there is also 'art' involved. This could be 'technical art' or' artistic art' but in either case talent or art is injected into the equation.

Umm.. hmm.. could you go over the middle part again?

 

[W.Fovall]

its art if i feel compelled to hang it on my wall..

 

[otherprof]

Is marble an art or just a medium? Is paint an art or just a medium? What was the question?

 

[otherprof]

It is just a medium. Like paint and marble.

 

[Braineack]

its art if i feel compelled to hang it on my wall..

how do you hang performance art?

 

[robbins.photo]

its art if i feel compelled to hang it on my wall..

how do you hang performance art?

You've never been to Texas apparently.. lol

 

[W.Fovall]

its art if i feel compelled to hang it on my wall..

how do you hang performance art?

its hard, they scream when putting the screws in..