Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>At 07:20 AM 4/9/98 -0400, you wrote: I find many "art photographers" to be some >of the most pretentious people I've ever met. And their work often just >plain stinks. >I'm not an artist. "Fine art" photography does have its place, indeed, but often I get the impression that I too am being conned when I look at photos that are given this label. A well lit portrait, for instance, taken with impeccable technique, may get relegated to the mere status of a "photo", in the pejorative sense, as if it is mundane and insignificant, even though it may capture something special of the subject's personality and the human condition. Take the same subject, use the same lighting, lens, film, etc. but smear shaving cream on the subject's face and somehow it is no longer a portrait, being instead elevated to the more prestigious status of "fine art". The shaving cream does not, of itself, make the photo "fine art". The creative act of using shaving cream where no one had thought of that before makes it art. It is so easy to be fooled! - -GH